UC-NRLF 


B     3     M2b     115 


KNTEnROPO^  ^ov  LTBIIAM] 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 


PRESENTED  BY 

PROF.  CHARLES  A.  KOFOID  AND 

MRS.  PRUDENCE  W.  KOFOID 


MAN: 


AN   INTRODUCTION  TO   ANTHROPOLOGY. 


W.  E.  ROTZELL,B.S.,M.D., 

Lecturer  on  Botany  and  Zoology  in   the  Hahnemann   Medical    College  of 
Philadelphia  ;  Editor  of  the  Atlantic  Slope  Naturalist ;  Member  of  The 
American  Society  of  Naturalists ;  The  American   Association 
for  the  Advancement  of  Science  ;  The  American  Anthro- 
pological Association ,  International  Congress 
of  Americanists,  etc. 


SECOND  EDITION. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

JOHN  JOS.  McVEY. 
1905. 


Copyright,  1905, 

BY 

W.  E.  ROTZELL. 


Rio 
ifos- 


PREFACE. 


n^HE  first  edition  of  this  book,  published  in  1900, 
-*-  has  been  out  of  print  for  some  time.  In  this 
edition  the  same  general  plan  has  been  followed; 
and,  while  there  have  been  but  few  changes  made, 
there  are  a  number  of  additions.  A  new  chapter 
has  been  added  on  "The  Development  of  Culture" 
in  which  some  of  the  views  presented,  I  think,  can 
not  be  found  elsewhere. 

There  are  many  excellent  works  written  on  zool- 
ogy, treating  of  the  various  phases  of  animal  life, 
some  of  them  ending  with,  and  others  including, 
man ;  but,  beyond  mentioning  the  different  races  of 
mankind,  the  majority  of  them  have  very  little  to 
say  relative  to  the  human  species ;  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  many  different  books,  so  far  as  I  know, 
written  in  the  English  language,  treating  of  man- 
kind, start  out  with  the  consideration  of  man  as 
man,  and  make  little  or  no  reference  to  the  zoologi- 
cal aspect  of  the  subject,  t.  e.,  the  zoology  of  man. 
There  seems  to  be  a  break  in  our  literature  on  this 

(3) 


r-r  •  >  r  » .c  c ;,  7  ,  -  <  > 


4  PREFACE.  , 

subject  in  these  two  departments  of  knowledge, 
which  in  this  work  I  have  attempted  to  an  extent 
to  fill,  although,  I  fully  recognize,  in  a  very  brief 
and  necessarily  superficial  manner  in  a  volume  of 
this  size. 

The  importance  of  classification  is  recognized  by 
all  students  of  science,  although  unfortunately  there 
is  much  difference  of  opinion  relative  to  what 
characters  should  constitute  the  criteria  for  classi- 
fication. The  zoological  arrangement  of  the  sub- 
kingdoms  in  this  book  is  that  adopted  by  Prof. 
Alexander  Macalister,  of  the  University  of  DubHn ; 
while  in  the  arrangement  of  the  orders  of  the  mam- 
malia the  method  of  the  late  Prof.  H.  Alleyne 
Nicholson,  of  the  University  of  Toronto,  with  slight 
modification,  has  been  followed. 

Anthropology  seems  to  be,  unfortunately,  one  of 
those  subjects  about  which  the  vast  majority  of 
persons  know  very  little.  This  is  exceedingly  un- 
fortunate, and,  owing  to  the  fact  that  it  has  for  its 
consideration  our  own  kind,  should  not  be  so.  Many 
individuals  would  be  ashamed  to  acknowledge  they 
were  not  acquainted  with  the  date  of  some  partic- 
ular war  or  event  in  recent  history,  but  would 
acknowledge  without  a  blush,  they  had  never  heard 
of  their  probable  ancestral  types,  as  represented  by 
the  Neanderthal  skull  and  the  man  and  woman  of 


PREFACE.  5 

Spy.  Therefore,  until  anthropological  knowledge 
is  more  general  than  at  present,  too  much  cannot 
be  written  on  the  subject,  so  long  as  truth  and 
accuracy  are  maintained. 

In  a  volume  of  this  character,  treating  of  such  a 
broad  field  of  knowledge  as  that  of  general  anthro- 
pology, it  is  not  possible  for  any  one  writer,  no 
matter  how  intimate  he  may  be  with  the  subject 
involved,  to  assume  absolute  responsibility  for  all 
statements  made ;  and,  therefore,  the  many  refer- 
ences to  the  names  and  investigations  of  other 
workers  in  the  same  domain  are  not  only  advisable 
but,  to  an  extent,  necessary,  as  they  furnish  the 
reader  with  the  names  of  those  authors  whose 
writings  may  almost  be  considered  to  have  created 
the  science  of  anthropology,  and  to  which  atten- 
tion should  be  given. 

The  endeavor  has  been  made  to  start  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  long  chain  of  evolutionary  devel- 
opment in  the  life-history  of  the  earth,  and,  by 
gradual  stages  of  differentiation,  reach  man,  and 
finally  give  some  consideration  to  the  different  races 
of  man. 

The  classification  of  mankind  herein  adopted  is 
the  old  one  based  upon  color,  which,  owing  to  its 
general  acceptance,  its  ease  of  comprehension,  and 
the  uniformity  of  the   geographical   relation   of  the 


O  PREFACE. 

races,  is  the  most  suitable  in  a  work  of  this  char- 
acter. It  will  be  noted  that,  apparently,  the  rule 
of  from  the  lower  to  the  higher  has  been  departed 
from  in  the  instance  of  the  Red  race  in  placing  it 
between  the  Yellow  and  White  races.  The  reason 
for  doing  this  is  that  the  affinity  between  the  Yellow 
and  Red  races  seems  to  be  so  close  that  we  must 
consider  the  latter  race  to  be  dependent  upon  the 
former  for  its  origin,  and  hence  this  arrangement. 
It  might  possibly  have  been  well  to  have  considered 
them  as  constituting  a  single  race. 

In  the  sub-title  of  this  work  the  word  Anthro- 
pology is  used  in  its  most  comprehensive  and 
broadest  sense,  although  much  herein  included  be- 
longs to  that  special  field  of  anthropology  termed 
Ethnology,  which  has  for  its  consideration  the  rela- 
tions of  the  different  varieties  of  mankind  to  each 
other  (Latham,  Keane).  The  science  of  Ethnog- 
raphy, which  is  descriptive  of  individuals  irrespec- 
tive of  their  relationship  to  other  peoples,  is  also 
necessarily  touched  upon.  These  terms  are  here 
mentioned  for  the  reason  that  confusion  continu- 
ally occurs  owing  to  the  incorrect  usage  of  them. 

Many  authorities  have  been  consulted  in  the  prep- 
aration of  this  work ;  but  especial  obligation  should 
be  acknowledged  to  the  Ethnology  by  Prof.  A.  H. 
Keane,    The  Earth  and  Its  Inhabitants  by   Elisee 


PREFACE.  7 

Reclus,  The  Races  of  Man  by  Oscar  Peschel,  and 
many  of  the  writings  of  the  late  Dr.  Daniel  G. 
Brinton.  Acknowledgment  should  also  be  made  to 
Prof.  William  Z.  Ripley,  of  Columbia  University, 
for  certain  suggestions  of  value  which  he  very 
kindly  made. 

W.  E.   ROTZELL. 

Narberth,  Pa..  December  21st,  1^04. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  earth's  life-history  AND  THE  POSITION  OF  MAN. 

Matter  and  force.  Inorganic  and  organic  matter.  Proto- 
plasm. The  Cell.  Vegetable  and  animal  forms.  Classi- 
fication. The  sub-kingdoms  of  the  animal  kingdom. 
Characteristics  of  the  vertebrata.  Characteristics  of  the 
mammalia.  The  order  of  the  primates.  The  family  Hom- 
inidas.  The  genus  homo  and  the  species  sapiens.  An- 
thropology. Special  creation.  Evolution.  The  nebular 
hypothesis.  The  modification  of  the  earth  and  the  geo- 
logical stratifications.  The  age  of  the  earth.  The  place 
and  time  of  the  origin  of  man.  "Lemuria."  Archaeo- 
logical finds  bearing  on  the  antiquity  of  man,  from  the 
valley  of  the  Somme,  the  cave  of  Aurignac,  and  the 
Kitchenmiddens.  Tertiary  man.  The  Neanderthal  skull. 
The  man  and  woman  of  Spy.  The  Naulette  jaw.  The 
Pithecanthropus  erectus.  Living  man.  The  skull.  The 
face.  The  orbital  index.  The  facial  angle.  The  maxillary- 
angle.  The  teeth.  The  pelvis.  The  limbs.  The  hair. 
The  color  of  the  skin.     The  living  races  of  man 13-66 

CHAPTER  n. 

THE    BLACK    (aFRICAN)    RACE. 

The  characteristics  of  the  race.  Color  of  the  skin.  The 
hair.  The  skull.  The  jaws.  The  cheek  bones.  The 
nasal  index.  Stature.  The  branches  of  the  race.  The 
Negrillos.  The  Pigmies,  their  distribution  and  character- 
istics. The  Akkas,  the  Wochua,  the  Andamanese,  and  the 
Batwa.  The  Hottentots,  their  distribution  and  character- 
istics. The  Bushmen,  their  distribution  and  character- 
istics.    The   True    Negroes.     The    Soudanese    and    their 

(9) 


10  CONTENTS. 

FAGS 

distribution.  The  Wolofs,  the  Serers,  the  Baniuns,  the 
Mandingoes,  and  others.  The  Bantuas,  their  character- 
istics and  distribution.  The  Zulus  and  the  Kaffirs.  The 
ability  of  the  Negro.  Slavery.  Status  of  the  race  in 
America 67-84 

CHAPTER  III. 

THE  YELLOW    (ASIAN )    RACE. 

The  physical  characteristics  of  the  race.  The  original 
home  of  the  race  and  its  distribution.  The  Sinitic  and 
Sibiric  branches.  The  Chinese,  their  culture,  their  lan- 
guage and  their  religion.  The  Thibetans.  The  Indo- 
Chinese  or  the  Thibeto-Indo-Chinese.  The  Tunguses. 
The  Kalmucks.  The  Tartars.  The  Turks.  The  Finns. 
The  Lapps,  or  Laplanders.  The  Chukchis.  The  Na- 
mollos.  The  Kamschatkans.  The  Giliaks.  The  Aleu- 
tians. The  Ainos.  The  Japanese,  their  physical  char- 
acteristics, their  origin  and  their  culture 85-102 

CHAPTER  IV. 

THE   RED    (AMERICAN)   RACE. 

The  characteristics  and  origin  of  the  race.  The  Glacial 
Period  in  America  and  its  bearing  on  the  antiquity  of 
man.  The  physical  uniformity  of  the  American  Indians, 
their  mental  endowments,  their  culture  and  their  lan- 
guages. The  Eskimos.  The  Algonkins.  The  Crees. 
The  Chipeways.  The  Blackfeet.  The  Lenapes.  The 
Iroquois.  The  Cayugas,  the  Senegas,  the  Onondagons, 
the  Oneidas  and  the  Mohawks.  The  Dakotas  or  Sioux. 
The  Muskhogeans,  the  Choctaws,  the  Creeks  and  the 
Seminoles.  The  Caddoes.  The  Pawnees.  The  Yumas. 
The  Pueblos.  The  "  Mound  Builders."  The  Sonora. 
The  Nahuas  or  Aztecs  and  their  civilization.  The 
Toltecs.  The  Otomis.  TheTotonacos.  The  Zapotecs. 
The  Mixtecks.  The  Mayas  and  their  civilization.  The 
Caribs.  TheArawaks.  The  Tulpis,  the  Ges,  the  Crans, 
the  Botocudos,  the  Coroados,  the  Puris  and  the  Malalis. 
The  Qquichuas  or  Incas.  The  Patagonians.  The  Fue- 
gians 103-127 


CONTENTS.  II 

FAGK 

CHAPTER  V. 

THE    WHITE    (EUROPEAN)    RACE. 

The  physical  characteristics  of  the  races.  The  race  in  the 
region  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea.  The  South  Mediter- 
ranean branch.  The  Hamites.  The  Berbers.  The 
Libyans.  The  Moors.  The  Numidians.  TheGuanches. 
The  Rifians.  The  Egyptians  and  their  culture.  The 
East  Africans.  The  Bedjas.  The  Daakals,  or  Afars. 
The  Gallas.  The  Somalis.  The  Massi.  The  Semites. 
The  Arabs.  The  Abyssinians.  The  Armenians.  The 
Syrians.  The  Assyrians.  The  Babylonians.  The  Jews. 
The  North  Mediterranean  branch.  The  Basques,  The 
Aryans  and  their  origin.  The  Umbrians.  The  Sam- 
nites.  The  Latins,  or  Romans.  The  Celts.  The 
Highland  Scotch.  The  Irish.  The  Manx.  The  Welsh. 
The  Teutons.  The  Goths.  The  Vandals.  The  Angles 
and  Saxons.  The  Danes.  The  Norsemen.  The 
Franks.  The  Lombards.  The  Swedes.  The  Norwe- 
gians. The  Icelanders.  The  Germans.  The  Slavs. 
The  Huns.  The  Russians.  The  Ruthenians.  The 
Poles.  The  Czechs.  The  Bulgarians.  The  Wends,  or 
Sorbs.  The  Letts.  The  Albanians.  The  Illyrians. 
The  Armenians.  The  Bakrrians.  The  Persians.  The 
Caucasic  peoples,  their  language  and  their  tribes ....  128-143 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE    INSULAR    PEOPLES. 

The  Malays.  The  Hovas.  The  Polynesians.  The  Maoris. 
The  Tongas.  The  Tahitians.  The  Pomotonans.  The 
Marquesans.  Inhabitants  of  the  Philippine  Islands. 
The  Tagalas.  The  Bisayas.  The  Ilocanes.  The  Pam- 
pangos.  The  Igorrotes.  The  Tingianes.  The  Apayos. 
The  Bogobos.  The  Samals.  The  Andamanese.  The 
Papuans.  The  Fijians.  The  Mclanesians.  Australia 
and  the  Austialians.     The  Tasmanians i44-i57 


12  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  CULTURE. 

The  early  condition  of  man,  physically  and  mentally.  His 
necessities.  Origin  of  culture.  Implements  and  wea- 
pons, paleolithic  and  neolithic.  Food.  Fire.  Lan- 
guage.    Writing.     Environment 158-182 


man; 

AN  INTRODUCTION  TO  ANTHROPOLOGY. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE    earth's    life-history    AND    THE    POSITION    OF 

MAN. 

Contents. — Matter  and  force.  Inorganic  and  organic  matter. 
Protoplasm.  The  Cell.  Vegetable  and  animal  forms.  Classi- 
fication. The  sub-kingdoms  of  the  animal  kingdom.  Char- 
acteristics of  the  vertebrata.  Characteristics  of  the  mammalia. 
The  order  of  the  primates.  The  family  Hominidse.  The  genus 
homo,  and  the  species  sapiens.  Anthropology.  Special  crea- 
tion. Evolution.  The  nebular  hypothesis.  The  modification 
of  the  earth  and  the  geological  stratifications.  The  age  of  the 
earth.  The  place  and  time  of  the  origin  of  man.  "  Lemuria." 
Archaeological  finds  bearing  on  the  antiquity  of  man,  from  the 
valley  of  the  Somme,  the  cave  of  Aurignac,  and  the  Kitchen- 
middens.  Tertiary  man.  The  Neanderthal  skull.  The  man 
and  woman  of  Spy.  The  Naulette  jaw.  The  Pithecanthropus 
crectus.  Living  man.  The  skull.  The  face.  The  orbital 
index.  The  facial  angle.  The  maxillary  angle.  The  teeth. 
The  pelvis.  The  limbs.  The  hair.  The  color  of  the  skin. 
The  living  races  of  man. 

EVERYTHING  in  the  universe  is  composed  of 
matter,  associated  with  which  is  force  or 
energy.  Matter,  on  the  one  hand,  so  far  as  we 
know,  cannot  exist  without  force,  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  force  cannot  exist  without  being  identified 
with  matter.  By  matter  we  understand  to  be  com- 
prised all  substances  that  occupy  space  and  that  arc 

13 


14  MATTER    AND    FORCE. 

appreciable  to  our  senses ;  and  by  force  we  mean 
that  power  which  produces  or  increases  those 
motions  and  changes  which  occur  in  material  sub- 
stances. 

Matter  and  force  are  coexistent  and  imperishable, 
and  it  is  inconceivable  to  the  human  mind  that  one 
can  exist  without  the  other.  ''Force  and  matter," 
says  Biichner,  "are  fundamentally  the  same  thing, 
contemplated  from  different  standpoints.  In  the 
material  world  we  know  of  no  example  of  a  particle 
of  matter  not  endowed  with  force  or  working  by  it." 

This  seems  to  have  been  recognized  long  ago  by 
John  Hunter,  for  in  his  "  Introduction  to  Natural 
History"  he  says:  ''Matter  being  endowed  with 
properties  which  become  the  cause  of  our  sensa- 
tions, and  the  modes  of  action  of  these  properties 
being  hardly  known,  these  properties  become  the 
foundation  of  the  idea  of  spirit,  viz.,  a  species  of 
intelligent  quality  that  presides  over  and  directs  the 
actions  of  matter.  But,  as  causes  and  effects  of 
matter  seem  to  be  entirely  connected  with  matter 
itself,  and  to  be  a  property  inherent  in  and  insep- 
arable from  it,  and  as  these  are  becoming  better 
known,  the  '  presiding  spirits '  are  every  day  vanish- 
ing, and  their  authority  becoming  less."  Hunter, 
however,  in  this  instance  in  his  reference  to  "spirit" 
does  not  show  his  usual  versatile  blunt  logic,  for, 
the  factor  which  underlies  the  idea  of  spirit  more 
than  any  other  is  consciousness,  which  cannot  be 
explained  on  materialistic  grounds. 

Matter  exists  or  manifests  itself  in  three  different 
states  or  conditions,  the   solid,  the  liquid  and  the 


THE    CELL.  15 

gaseous.  It  may  be  changed  from  the  one  to  the 
other  of  these  conditions,  but  it  cannot  be  destroyed 
or  annihilated.  Its  form  may  be  changed,  but  not 
one  atom  can  be  destroyed. 

Matter  is  subdivided  into  inorganic  and  organic 
matter.  By  inorganic  matter  we  understand  those 
substances  that  are  unorganized,  i.  e.,  do  not  possess 
organs  or  structures  for  the  performance  of  any 
physiological  function.  Inorganic  substances  are 
devoid  of  life,  and  in  the  form  of  inorganic  sub- 
stances never  did  possess  life,  and,  of  course,  never 
will.  Chemically,  unorganized  substances  are  com- 
posed of  many  different  elements,  and  are  made  up 
of  a  large  number  of  homogeneous  parts,  which 
have  no  definite  relationship  to  each  other.  Inor- 
ganic substances  have  no  definite  form,  and  are  said 
to  be  ''amorphous,"  or  they  may  be  ''crystalline" 
when  they  are  bounded  by  plane  surfaces  and 
straight  lines.  Inorganic  substances  do  not  grow, 
in  the  true  meaning  of  the  word,  but  may  increase 
in  size  by  "accretion"  or  additions  to  the  outside. 

All  organic  bodies  are  composed  fundamentally 
of  structures  which  are  denominated  to  be  cells. 
These  cells  are  mostly  microscopic  in  size  and  were 
first  discovered  in  plants  by  Mathias  Schleider  in 
the  year  1838,  and  shortly  afterwards  Theodor 
Schwann  showed  that  the  same  structures  were  the 
basic  elements  of  the  animal  body. 

A  cell  is  composed  of  protoplasm  which  consists 
mainly  of  protein  which  is  composed  chemically  of 
the  elements  of  carbon,  hydrogen,  oxygen  and  nitro- 
gen;  sometimes  sulphur  is  present,  and  associated 


l6  ORGANIC    MATTER. 

with  these  is  a  considerable  proportion  of  water. 
Surrounding  this  protoplasm  of  the  cell  there  is 
usually  a  portion  thereof  which  is  termed  the  cell 
wall,  and  there  is  usually  a  well-defined  structure  in 
the  center  which  is  called  the  nucleus. 

The  tendency  of  all  cells  is  to  assume  the  spheri- 
cal in  shape,  but  this  is  variously  modified  by  pres- 
sure. Many  of  the  lower  plants  and  animals  con- 
sist of  but  a  single  cell,  which  cell  in  its  own  en- 
vironment is  competent  to  perform  and  does  per- 
form all  of  the  necessary  functions  of  life.  In  the 
higher  plants  and  animals  there  is  a  unity  which  re- 
sults from  the  fusion  of  the  two-sex  cells,  and  by 
continued  division  growth  is  accomplished.  The 
study  of  cell-structure  and  formation  since  the  dis- 
covery of  cells  was  made,  has  added  much  to  our 
knowledge  of  life  and  has  also  been  of  great  practi- 
cal value  to  mankind,  for  upon  the  cellular  theory 
is  founded  our  knowledge  of  cellular  pathology. 

Organic  bodies  possess  organs  or  structures  for 
the  performance  of  the  physiological  functions  of 
life.  In  the  lowest  types  of  organic  life  distinct  or- 
gans do  not  exist,  but,  nevertheless,  the  different 
physiological  functions  are  performed.  Organized 
bodies  are  fundamentally  composed  of  a  few  chemi- 
cal elements  into  quite  complex  combinations. 
They  are  composed  of  heterogeneous  parts,  among 
which  there  is  always  more  or  less  definite  relation- 
ship. These  forms  are  always  of  a  definite  shape, 
the  surfaces  of  the  body  being  bounded  by  curved 
lines,  either  convex  or  concave.  Organic  substances 
grow,  in  the  true  meaning  of  the  word;  that  is,  they 
increase  in  size  by  the  intussusception  of  matter. 


ORGANIC    MATTER, 


17 


Organic  bodies  are  divided  into  plants  and  ani- 
mals. In  the  case  of  the  higher  vegetable  and  ani- 
mal forms,  when  a  comparison  is  made  the  differ- 
ences are  quite  obvious.  As  an  illustration,  con- 
sider the  deer  that  is  browsing  on  the  grass  ;  one 
would  at  first  thought  consider  resemblances  be- 
tween the  two  to  be  out  of  the  question.  Many 
points  of  difference  may  easily  be  noted ;  the  animal 
has  a  nervous  system,  a  vertebral  column,  a  gastro- 
intestinal tract,  and  the  power  of  locomotion,  as 
well  as  many  other  faculties  that  the  plant  is  entirely 
without.  All  of  these  differences,  however,  gradu- 
ally fade  away  as  we  trace  the  probable  ancestral 
lines  of  the  two  down  to  the  primitive  forms  of  life, 
and  then  make  the  comparison.  In  the  case  of  the 
lowest  forms  of  organisms  the  absolute  differentia- 
lion  of  plant  and  animal  is  an  impossibility,  and 
hence  Prof.  Haeckel  has  proposed  an  intermediate 
kingdom  which  he  calls  the  Regn^nn  protisticiim,  in 
which  to  place  these  doubtful  forms.  The  study  of 
life  in  general  is  comprised  in  the  science  of  Biology, 
which  includes  Botany,  which  treats  of  the  vegetable 
world,  and  Zoology,  which  has  for  its  consideration 
the  animal  kingdom. 

Animals  may  be  studied  primarily  from  two  dif- 
ferent standpoints,  the  morphological  and  the  phy- 
siological. Morphology  treats  of  the  structures 
which  constitute  the  internal  form  of  the  animal ; 
and  Physiology,  which  relates  to  the  different  func- 
tions performed  by  the  various  parts  of  the  animal. 
All  animals  perform  the  functions  of  relation,  nutri- 
tion and  rcproductio}} ,  and  all  pass  through  the 
2 


l8  CLASSIFICATION. 

different  stages  of  waste  and  repair.  In  the  first 
stage,  repair  is  in  excess  of  waste ;  when  the  second 
stage  is  reached,  waste  and  repair  are  equal ;  and, 
lastly,  the  third  stage  is  when  waste  exceeds  repair, 
the  assimilated  material  being  insufficient  to  keep 
up  the  processes  of  life,  and  hence  the  death  of  the 
individual  is  the  result. 

The  variety  and  number  of  living  animal  forms 
are  so  great  that  in  order  to  study  them  and  appre- 
ciate the  results  of  such  study,  some  system  is  neces- 
sary ;  and  in  order  that  we  may  accomplish  this  we 
have  these  diverse  phases  of  animal  life  divided  into 
a  number  of  groups,  according  as  they  bear  more 
or  less  resemblance  to  one  another.  The  arrange- 
ment of  these  groups  constitutes  classification. 

The  animal  kingdom  is  divided  into  eight  great 
plans  of  structure,  and  the  divisions  thus  formed 
are  designated  "  sub-kingdoms."  In  these,  from  the 
lower  to  the  higher,  we  find  a  progressive  increase 
in  complexity,  from  one  end  of  the  series  to  the 
other;  this  series,  however,  does  not  constitute  a 
linear  one,  as  the  highest  organism  of  each  is  never 
directly  related  to  the  lowest  organism  of  the  next 
higher  sub-kingdom.  It  is  usually  more  highly  de- 
veloped and  specialized,  and  so  it  can  be  seen  that 
the  sub-kingdoms  overlap,  as  it  were,  one  another. 

The  sub-kingdoms  are  divided  into  classes ;  the 
classes  into  orders ;  the  orders  into  families ;  the 
families  into  genera,  and  the  genera  into  species, 
the  species  constituting  the  zoological  unit  upon 
which  all  divisions  are  made. 

Of   these   eight    sub-kingdoms    the    lowest,    and 


ANIMAL    SUB-KIXGDOMS.  I9 

hence  the  first  to  be  considered,  is  the  Protozoa.  As 
the  name  implies,  this  group  includes  the  most  lowly 
organized  forms  of  the  entire  animal  series.  Some 
of  these  animals  consist  of  undifferentiated  proto- 
plasm, and  are  of  extreme  simplicity.  They  do  not 
possess  a  body  cavity,  nor  are  any  traces  of  a  ner- 
vous system  to  be  found.  As  a  rule  the  Protozoa 
are  aquatic  in  their  habits  and  microscopic  in  size, 
although  they  sometimes  form  colonies.  The  sim- 
plest of  all  known  animal  forms,  called  Monera, 
belong  to  this  sub-kingdom.  "The  entire  body  of 
one  of  these  ]^Ionera,"  says  Haeckel,  "during  life  is 
nothing  more  than  a  shapeless,  mobile  little  lump 
of  mucus  or  slime,  consisting  of  an  albuminous 
combination  of  carbon.  We  assume  that  this  homo- 
geneous mass  has  a  very  complicated  and  fine  mole- 
cular structure;  however,  this  has  not  been  proven 
either  anatomically  or  with  the  aid  of  the  micro- 
scope. Simpler  or  more  imperfect  organisms  we 
cannot  possibly  conceive."  Important  classes  in  this 
sub-kingdom  are  the  Rhizopoda,  the  Gregarinid^ 
and  the  Infusoria. 

Sub-kingdom  2.  Polysto7nata,mQ\\\(\^z'^i\\  interest- 
ing series  of  forms,  the  sponges,  which  some  observ- 
ers still  consider  to  be  of  vegetable  nature.  The 
sponges  have  an  internal  body  cavity,  with  a  wall 
composed  of  three  primary  layers.  In  most  of  these 
forms  there  is  one  outlet  and  many  inlets,  but,  while 
consisting  of  many  cells,  there  are  no  dift'erentiated 
organs. 

Sub-kingdom  3.  Coclenterata,  includes  those  ani- 
mals  whose  alimentary    canal    communicates    freely 


20  ANIMAL    SUB-KINGDOMS. 

with  the  general  cavity  of  the  body.  The  body  is 
composed  of  two  layers — an  outer,  called  the  ecto- 
derm, and  an  inner,  called  the  endoderm.  In  the 
majority  of  the  coelenterata  there  are  no  traces  of  a 
nervous  system.  The  jelly-fishes  and  sea-anemones 
are  members  of  this  sub-kingdom.  Both  of  these 
forms  possess  a  radiate  symmetry. 

Sub-kingdom  4.  Echinoder7nata,  includes  the  sea- 
urchins,  the  star-fishes  and  the  sea-cucumbers.  In 
the  larval  condition  there  are  traces  of  a  bilateral 
symmetry,  but  in  the  adult  they  show  a  radiating 
symmetry.  An  internal  body  cavity  is  always  pres- 
ent. There  is  a  nervous  system  arranged  in  the 
form  of  a  ring  around  the  mouth,  from  which  nerve 
filaments  pass  to  different  portions  of  the  animal. 
Some  of  the  echinoderms  show  certain  pigment 
spots,  w^hich  have  been  supposed  to  be  simple  eyes. 
Calcareous  matter  is  deposited  in  the  skin,  giving  it 
a  hard  consistency.  There  is  also  a  system  of  water 
tubes,  the  ''ambulacral  system,"  by  which  locomo- 
tion is  greatly  facilitated. 

Sub-kingdom  5.  Vermes,  includes  the  worms,  the 
internal  structure  of  which  is  quite  variable,  bilateral 
symmetry  being  the  most  general  character.  There 
is  a  nervous  system  present  in  most  forms.  All 
worms  possess  a  water-vascular  system.  A  number 
of  these  forms  are  parasitic,  living  within  the  bodies 
of  higher  animals.  The  lower  forms  are  not  seg- 
mented, but  the  higher  ones,  the  annelids,  consist 
of  a  series  of  homologous  segments. 

Sub-kingdom  6.  Molltisca,  includes  those  soft- 
bodied  animals  possessing  a  leathery  mantle  or  shell, 


ANIMAL    SUB-KINGDOMS.  21 

composed  of  carbonate  of  lime,  which  serves  as  a 
protection  to  the  animal.  The  oysters,  the  whelks, 
the  snails  and  the  cuttle-fishes  belong  to  this  divi- 
sion. Many  of  the  lower  mollusca  form  colonies  by 
continuous  gemmation,  but  the  higher  forms  are  all 
simple  animals. 

Sub-kingdom  7.  Arthropoda,  includes  those  ani- 
mals which  have  bodies  composed  of  successive 
segments  or  joints,  and  which  are  covered  by  a 
hard  external  layer  composed  of  chitin,  and  known 
as  the  exoskeleton.  The  arthropods  are  bilaterally 
symmetrical.  The  forms  included  in  this  sub-king- 
dom are  the  crabs,  the  lobsters,  the  spiders  and  the 
insects. 

Sub-kingdom  8.  Vertebrata.  The  animals  in- 
cluded in  this  sub-kingdom  are  the  fishes,  the  am- 
phibians, the  reptiles,  the  birds  and  the  mammals. 

All  vertebrated  animals  possess  at  some  period  of 
their  existence  a  cartilaginous  structure  running 
along  the  dorsal  region  of  the  body,  called  the  "no- 
tochord  "  or  "  chorda  dorsalis."  In  some  forms  the 
notochord  is  persistent  throughout  life,  but  in  the 
majority  of  cases  it  is  replaced  by  the  vertebral 
column  or  backbone. 

On  cross-section,  the  body  of  a  vertebrated  animal 
may  be  considered  to  resemble  two  tubes,  the  smaller 
being  above  and  the  larger  beneath.  Between  these 
tubes  we  find  the  notochord.  The  smaller  tube 
contains  the  cerebro-spinal  nervous  system,  and  the 
larger  tube  contains  the  alimentary  canal,  the  or- 
gans of  circulation,  etc.,  and  also  portions  of  the 
nervous    svstem    known    as    the    "ganglionic"    or 


22  THE    VERTEBRATA. 

"sympathetic"  system.  In  the  invertebrated  ani- 
mals the  body  consists  of  but  a  single  tube,  and  this 
includes  all  of  the  viscera.  The  main  portions  of 
the  nervous  system  in  the  vertebrated  animal  are 
situated  in  the  dorsal  region.  The  vertebrata  are 
bilaterally  symmetrical.  The  segmented  arrange- 
ment of  many  of  the  invertebrates  is  present  to  a 
certain  extent,  as  is  seen  by  the  examination  of  their 
bones,  and  as  may  be  more  clearly  recognized  in 
their  embryology.  This  segmentation  is,  however, 
greatly  obscured  in  the  adult  by  the  arrangement  of 
the  soft  tissues. 

The  limbs  are  never  more  than  four  in  number 
and  are  arranged  in  pairs ;  they  are  in  some  in- 
stances altogether  wanting  or  but  partially  de- 
veloped ;  but  never  more  than  two  pairs  are  present. 
These  limbs  are  variously  modified,  as  the  paired 
fins  of  fishes,  the  wings  and  legs  of  birds,  the  fore 
and  hind  legs  of  quadrupeds,  or  the  arms  and  the 
legs  of  man ;  all  of  these  are  but  modifications  of 
the  one  type,  which  modifications  are  generally  re- 
cognized to  have  been  the  result  of  the  effect  of 
the  environment  under  which  these  different  animals 
have  existed,  and  of  the  different  functions  that  have 
been  performed. 

All  vertebrates  possess  a  specialized  circulatory 
system,  and  in  all  except  one — the  A7nphioxus  lan- 
ceolatus — there  is  a  heart,  which  consists  of  either 
two,  three  or  four  chambers.  The  hepatic  portal 
system  is  a  peculiar  modification  of  the  venous  sys- 
tem of  bloodvessels  which  is  found  in  all  of  the 
vertebrates.    The  lacteal  system,  which  is  considered 


THE    VERTEBKATA.  2^ 

to  be  an  appendage  of  the  venous  system,  which 
takes  up  and  elaborates  the  products  of  digestion 
and  finally  empties  the  contents  into  the  veins,  is 
also  present. 

All  vertebrated  animals  have  a  mouth,  and  in  the 
majority  of  instances  teeth  are  present ;  an  oesopha- 
eus  is  also  found,  and  in  some  cases  a  crop  (inglu- 
vies)  and  fore-stomach  (proventriculus);  next  come 
the  stomach,  intestines,  cloaca  and  vent.  Appended 
to  the  alimentary  canal  are  a  number  of  glands, 
which  act  upon  the  food  and  prepare  it  for  assimi- 
lation. The  salivary  glands  secrete  the  saliva ;  the 
gastric  juice  is  secreted  in  the  stom^ach ;  the  liver 
secretes  the  bile ;  the  pancreas  secretes  the  pancre- 
atic juice,  and  in  the  mucous  membrane  of  the  in- 
testine are  found  certain  glands  which  secrete 
intestinal  juice. 

Respiration  is  accomplished  in  fishes  and  larval 
amphibians  by  means  of  gills,  but  the  adult  amphi- 
bians and  other  land  vertebrates  breathe  by  means 
of  special  cellular  sacs,  called  lungs. 

In  all  of  the  vertebrates  reproduction  is  accom- 
plished by  means  of  the  sexes,  and  in  no  instances 
do  we  find  the  two  sexes  in  a  single  individual. 
Among  the  vertebrates  no  animal  possesses  the 
power  of  reproducing  itself  by  fission  or  gemmation. 
The  so-called  special  senses  of  sight,  hearing, 
smell,  taste  and  touch  are  probably  always  present 
among  vertebrates,  although  the  degree  to  which 
these  senses  are  developed  may  vary  considerably. 

In  the  vertebrata  we  find  that  the  skeleton  may 
be  considered  as  consisting  on  the  one  hand  of  those 


24  THE    VERTEBRATA. 

bones  which  go  to  form  the  head  and  trunk,  and 
thus  forming-  a  sort  of  axis,  and  hence  known  as 
the  axil  skeleton ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  of  those 
bones  which  form  the  support  for  the  limbs  or  ap- 
pendages, and  hence  called  the  appendicular  skele- 
ton. The  head  and  trunk  may  be  considered  as 
consisting  of  a  series  of  bony  segments  arranged 
longitudinally,  one  following  the  other.  The  skull, 
wdiich  is  situated  at  the  anterior  portion  of  this 
series  of  segments,  is  much  modified  to  form  the 
large  bony  chamber  which  receives  the  brain. 
While  there  is  still  some  di'fference  of  opinion  as  to 
the  formation  of  the  skull,  the  tendency  among  com- 
parative anatomists  is,  nevertheless,  to  consider  that 
it  has  been  formed  by  a  modification  of  separate 
segments. 

The  lower  jaw,  or  inferior  maxillary,  is  present  in 
nearly  all  of  the  vertebrates,  and  consists  of  two 
halves  or  rami,  which  are  united  anteriorly,  but 
posteriorly  articulate  separately  with  the  skull. 
In  some  instances  each  ramus  consists  of  several 
pieces  united  by  sutures,  but  in  the  mammalia  each 
ramus  consists  of  but  one  piece.  The  two  rami  are 
sometim.es  united  anteriorly  by  ligaments,  by  car- 
tilage, or  there  may  be  a  bony  union.  In  the  rep- 
tiles and  birds  the  inferior  maxillary  does  not  ar- 
ticulate directly  with  the  skull  as  in  the  mammalia, 
but  through  the  intervention  of  a  third  bone  known 
as  the  quadrate  bone,  or  os  qiiadratum. 

Each  separate  bony  segment  which  goes  to  make 
up  the  vertebral  column  is  called  a  vertebra  ;  collec- 
tively they  are   known    as  vertebrae.     The  anterior 


THE    VERTEBRATA.  25 

part  of  a  vertebra  is  known  as  the  ccntj'ziin  or  body  ; 
attached  to  the  centrum  posteriorly  is  a  ring  or 
arch,  which  is  formed  by  two  lateral  projections  or 
processes.  These  processes,  on  meeting  behind, 
form  the  spinous  process.  The  arches  form  with 
the  centrum  a  ring  through  which  passes  the  spinal 
canal.  Owing  to  this  circumstance  the  arch  is 
spoken  of  as  the  iieicral  a^xJi,  the  ring  as  the  iieii- 
ral  canal,  and  the  spinous  processes  as  the  nenral 
spine.  Coming  oft  from  the  neural  arches  are  two 
processes  called  the  articular  processes.  Two  lat- 
eral processes  called  the  transverse  processes  come 
off  from  the  sides  of  the  body  of  the  vertebra  at  the 
junction  with  the  neural  arches. 

The  comparative  anatomist  recognizes  a  second 
arch,  which,  owing  to  the  modification  the  parts 
have  undergone,  is  not  as  clearly  recognized  as  the 
neural  arch.  This  second  arch  is  the  hcBJual  arch, 
which  contains  the  organs  of  circulation,  the  ali- 
mentary canal  and  the  accompanying  structures. 
This  haemal  arch  is  formed  by  the  ribs,  the  costal 
cartilages  and  the  breastbone,  or  stej-num,  which,  in 
some  cases,  as  in  most  of  the  birds,  develops  a  spine 
— the  hcsmal  spine — which  corresponds  to  the 
neural  spine  on  the  opposite  side.  In  the  higher 
vertebrates  the  spinal  column  is  divided  into  several 
different  regions,  namely,  the  cervical,  the  dorsal, 
the  hcmbar,  the  sacral  and  the  caudal  or  coccygeal, 
all  named  according  to  the  position  they  occupy  in 
the  series. 

The  fore  limbs  arc  attached  to  the  trunk  by 
means   of  three   bones — the   scapula,   the    coracoid, 


26  THE    MAMMALIA. 

and  the  clavicle — and  these  bones  constitute  a  group 
which  is  frequently  known  as  tht  pectoral  or  shoulder 
arch.  The  clavicle  is  in  many  instances  absent,  and 
the  coracoid  is  not  always  a  separate  bone.  The 
hind  limbs  are  connected  in  essentially  the  same 
manner  by  means  of  three  other  bones,  the  ilhim, 
the  ischitim  and  the  pubes,  which,  collectively,  are 
known  as  the  pelvic  arch;  these  three  bones  are 
frequently  ossified  together,  and  they  then  form 
what  is  known  as  the  injiominate  bone. 

The  fore  limb  consists  of  a  single  long  bone,  the 
humerus,  succeeded  by  two  long  bones,  the  radius 
and  the  ulna  ;  these  are  followed  by  two  rows  of 
small  wrist  bones,  which  constitute  the  carpus ;  the 
carpus  is  succeeded  by  the  rnetacaipus,  the  bones  of 
which  support  the  digits.  The  homologous  struc- 
tures in  the  hind  limb  are  the  femur,  the  tibia  and 
fibula,  the  tarsus,  the  7netatarsus  and  the  phalanges. 
All  of  these  bones  show  considerable  variation  in 
the  different  vertebrates;  sometimes  there  is  a  bony 
union  between  certain  bones  which  are  usually  sep- 
arate; at  other  times  certain  of  these  bones  may  be 
absent. 

The  sub-kingdom  vertebrata  is  divided  into  five 
different  classes,  as  follows :  the  Pisces  or  fishes,  the 
Amphibia,  the  Reptilia,  the  Aves  or  birds,  and  the 
Mamfualia.  It  is  with  this  last  and  highest  class, 
the  Mammalia,  that  we  are  at  present  particularly 
concerned. 

The  mammalia  include  all  those  viviparous,  warm- 
blooded animals  which  nourish  their  young  by 
means  of  a  special  fluid,  the  milk,  which  is  secreted 


THE    MAMMALIA.  27 

by  special  glands,  the  mammary  glands.  At  some 
period  of  their  life  they  are  always  covered  with 
hair.  The  lower  jaw  always  articulates  directly 
with  the  skull,  and  there  are  always  two  occipital 
condyles.  The  thorax  is  separated  from  the  abdo- 
men by  means  of  a  large  muscle,  known  as  the  dia- 
phragm. The  cerebral  hemispheres  are  connected 
by  a  transverse  commissure,  the  corpus  callosnm. 
The  heart  consists  of  four  chambers,  two  auricles 
and  two  ventricles,  the  pulmonary  and  systemic 
circulations  thus  being  completely  separated.  The 
single  aorta  is  reflected  over  the  left  bronchus. 

Except  in  the  aquatic  mammals— the  cetacea  and 
the  sirenia— the  vertebral  column  is  divisible  into 
the  same  regions  as  in  man.     The  usual  number  of 
cervical  vertebrae  is   seven.     In    the   dorsal    region 
there   are   from    ten    to   twenty-four   vertebrae;  the 
usual  number  is  thirteen;  in  man  there  are  twelve. 
In  the  lumbar  region  there  are  from  two  to  nine 
vertebrae;  the  usual  number  is  six  or  seven;  in  man 
there  are  five.     The  sacral  vertebrae  are  usually  an- 
chylosed    into    a    single    bone,    the    sacrum.      The 
caudal   vertebree  vary  greatly  in  number;  in  some 
bats  there  are  only  three ;  in  man  and  some  of  the 
higher  apes  there  are  four,  and  in  some  other  forms 
there    are    thirty.       In    man    this    caudal    region    is 
known  as  the  coccyx. 

In  the  mammalia  the  skeleton  varies,  particularly 
in  the  limbs.  The  scapula  is  always  present  in  all 
of  the  different  members  of  this  division.  The 
coracoid  bone,  which  is  an  important  structure  in 
birds,  is  only  found  as  a  separate  and  distinct  bone 


28  THE    MAMMALIA. 

in  one  order  of  the  mammalia,  the  monotremata. 
In  all  of  the  other  mammals  it  is  attached  to  the 
scapula,  and  forms  the  coracoid  process.  The 
clavicles  are  never  united  to  form  a  furcula  or 
"wish-bone,"  as  in  the  birds;  and  they  are  onty 
present  in  those  mammals  w^hich  use  their  anterior 
limbs  for  flight,  for  digging,  or  for  prehension. 

The  humerus  is  always  present  in  the  mammalia. 
The  radius  and  ulna  are  always  recognizable,  al- 
though they  are  sometimes  to  an  extent  united ;  in 
the  bats  the  ulna  may  be  absent. 

The  number  of  bones  entering  into  the  formation 
of  the  carpus  varies  in  the  different  mammals  from 
five  to  eleven ;  in  man  there  are  eight. 

The  metacarpus  is,  as  a  rule,  composed  of  five 
bones.  In  the  ruminants  and  in  the  horse  there  is 
but  a  single  metacarpal  bone,  but  the  embryology 
and  paleontology  of  these  forms  show  that  at  one 
time  there  were  a  large  number. 

The  digits  vary  from  one  to  five ;  the  latter  being 
the  typical  number.  Karl  Gegenbaum  first  pointed 
out  in  the  year  1864  how  the  five-toed  forms  of  land 
vertebrates  originated  probably  from  the  radiating 
breast  fin  of  the  ancient  carboniferous  fishes ;  the 
middle  one  is  the  longest,  and  the  thumb  is  fre- 
quently absent.  As  a  rule  each  digit  has  three 
phalanges,  except  the  thumb,  which  has  but  two. 
The  ability  to  oppose  the  thumb  to  the  rest  of  the 
digits  is  found  particularly  well  developed  in  man, 
although  it  is  present  to  a  limited  extent  in  the 
anthropoid  apes. 

The  posterior  limbs  are  present  in  the  majority  of 


THE    MAMMALIA. 


29 


the  mammalia.  The  pubic  bones  in  nearly  all  mam- 
mals are  united  to  form  the  ossa  innominata  in  the 
adult,  although  in  the  embryo  they  are  separate 
bones,  the  ilium,  the  ischium,  and  the  pubes. 

In  man  the  femur  is  the  longest  bone  in  the  body, 
while  in  the  other  mammals  it  is  relatively  much 
shorter.  The  tibia  and  fibula  are,  as  a  rule,  separate 
bones,  although  in  some  instances  they  are  found 
united.  The  tibia  corresponds  to  the  radius  anteri- 
orly, as  may  be  recognized  by  the  fact  that  it  sup- 
ports the  tarsus.  The  tarsus  consists  of  from  four 
to  nine  bones  in  the  various  mammals;  in  man  there 
are  seven.  In  the  majority  of  instances  there  are 
five  metacarpal  bones  and  five  digits,  but  this  is 
subject  to  frequent  variation,  as  are  the  correspond- 
ing structures  of  the  anterior  limb. 

Nearly  all  of  the  mammals  are  supplied  with 
teeth,  which  are  arranged  in  one  row,  and,  with  the 
single  exception  of  the  monotremata,  always  in 
sockets.  There  are  usually  two  sets  of  teeth ;  the 
first,  or  milk  set,  are  soon  lost,  and  are  succeeded  by 
the  second  or  permanent  teeth.  These  teeth  are 
divisible  into  four  different  groups,  which  differ 
from  one  another  in  their  position,  appearance  and 
function.  These  are  the  incisors,  ca7ii?ies,  premolar's 
and  molay^s.  All  of  these  teeth  are  not  necessarily 
present  in  all  mammals,  and  as  there  is  considerable 
variation  in  their  number  and  form,  they  furnish  in 
many  instances  a  valuable  key  for  classification. 
The  zoologist  expresses  the  number  and  arrange- 
ment of  the  teeth  in  a  set  fornuila  ;  the  dentition  of 
adult  man  is  expressed  thus  : 


30  ORDERS    OF    MAMMALIA. 


2  —  2  I  —  I  2  —  2  3  —  3 


="  32. 


The  initial  letter  indicates  the  name  of  the  teeth, 
and  following  this  is  the  number;  those  of  the 
upper  jaw  being  expressed  by  the  numerator,  and 
those  of  the  lower  jaw  being  expressed  by  the  de- 
nominator. 

Systematic  zoologists  have  divided  the  mammalia 
into  numerous  orders  from  12  to  32  in  number,  the 
higher  numbers  being  represented  when  the  extinct 
forms  are  considered ;  but  the  three  natural  groups 
proposed  by  Bainville  in  the  year  1816  are  still 
sound  as  sub-classes:  the  monotremata;  the  mar- 
supialia,  and  the  placentalia.  These  sub-classes  not 
merely  present  important  differences  in  their  anat- 
omy, but,  historically,  three  different  geological 
periods  are  correspondingly  represented.  The  mon- 
otremes  perhaps  originated  during  the  triassic  per- 
iod. The  earliest  marsupials  have  been  found  in  the 
Jurassic,  and  in  the  cretaceous  periods  the  earliest 
placentals  have  been  found. 

Many  classifications  of  the  mammalia  have  been 
made,  but  no  one  arrangement  has  been  universally 
adopted  by  zoologists.  All  divisions  are,  of  course, 
arbitrary  ones,  as  the  differences  found  in  nature  are 
all  differences  of  degree  and  not  differences  of  kind. 
For  convenience,  however,  the  foUowing  orders 
may  be  considered  as  comprising  the  living  animals 
of  the  class  mammalia : 

Order  i.  Mo7totrejnata. — In  the  animals  of  this 
order  the  ureters  and  ducts  from  the  reproductive 


ORDERS    OF    MAMMALIA.  31 

organs  open  in  common  into  a  urogenital  canal, 
which  with  the  rectum  opens  into  a  ''cloaca."  The 
testes  are  abdominal,  and  the  mammary  glands  are 
without  true  nipples.  The  marsupial  bones  are 
present,  but  there  is  no  pouch.  Included  in  this 
order  are  two  remarkable  forms  found  in  Australia, 
the  Ornithorhynclnis  and  the  Echidna. 

Order  2.  Marsiipialia  are  characterized  by  the 
fact  that  the  female  usually  possesses  a  pouch  or 
marsupium,  in  which  she  carries  her  young,  which 
are  born  in  a  very  imperfect  condition.  The  uterine 
ends  of  the  oviducts  with  the  ureters  open  into  a 
urogenital  canal,  which  is  distinct  from  the  rectum, 
although  included  in  the  same  sphincter  muscle. 
The  marsupial  bones  are  present  and  are  well  devel- 
oped. In  this  order  are  included  the  kangaroos  and 
the  opossums. 

Order  3.  Edentata.— Th^  absence  of  the  median 
incisors,  sometimes  all  of  the  incisors,  characterizes 
this  order.  Occasionally  the  canines  and  also  the 
molars  are  absent.  The  dentition  in  this  order  is 
very  incomplete  and  very  variable.  Included  here 
are  the  sloths,  armadillos  and  the  great  ant-eater. 

Order  4.  5^>^;^^^.— Includes  the  dugongs  and  the 
manatees,  mammals  which  are  adapted  for  an 
aquatic  life.  The  hind  limbs  are  absent  and  the  fore 
limbs  are  modified  into  swimming  paddles.  The 
nostrils  are  two  in  number  and  are  situated  on  the 
upper  part  of  the  snout.  The  tail  fin  is  expanded 
horizontally. 

Order  5.  Cetacea. — Includes  the  whales  and  the 
dolphins,  which  are  also  mammals  modified  for  an 


32  ORDERS    OF    MAMMALIA. 

aquatic  existence.  The  fore  limbs  are  the  only  ones 
present  and  these  are  modified  into  swimming  pad- 
dles. The  nostrils  are  situated  on  the  top  of  the 
head,  and  the  mammary  glands  are  situated  in  the 
region  of  the  groin. 

Order  6.  Ungulata. — The  animals  of  this  order 
are  characterized  by  the  fact  that  there  are  never 
more  than  four  full-sized  toes  to  each  limb  and  that 
these  are  covered  by  expanded  nails,  forming  hoofs. 
There  are  no  clavicles  present.  This  order  includes 
all  of  the  hoofed  quadrupeds,  and  the  ruminants,  as 
horses,  oxen,  tapirs,  rhinoceroses,  hippopotami, 
camels,  llamas,  deer  and  a  number  of  others. 

Order  7.  Hyracoidea. — Includes  the  single  genus 
Hyj-ax,  or  coney  of  Syria  and  Palestine.  The  canines 
are  absent  and  the  incisors  grow  from  persistent 
pulps.     There  are  no  clavicles  present. 

Order  8.  Proboscidea. — The  elephant  is  the  only 
living  form  in  this  order.  The  upper  incisor  teeth 
grow  from  persistent  pulps  and  form  tusks.  There 
are  no  clavicles  present.  The  nose  is  modified  into 
a  proboscis  or  trunk. 

Order  9.  Carnivora. — This  is  a  large  order  and 
includes  all  of  the  well-known  beasts  of  prey,  as 
lions,  tigers,  cats,  dogs,  wolves,  foxes  and  others. 
They  all  possess  three  different  varieties  of  teeth, 
viz.:  incisors,  canines  and  molars.  All  of  these 
teeth  possess  sharp  cutting  edges  rather  than  crowns 
for  the  grinding  of  the  food.  The  clavicles  are  quite 
rudimentary.  The  seals  and  walruses,  which  can 
almost  be  considered  as  leading  a  semi-aquatic  ex- 
istence, belong  to  this  order. 


ORDERS    OF    MAMMALIA.  33 

'  Order  lo.  Rodentia. — Includes  those  forms 
where  the  incisor  teeth  grow  from  persistent  pulps 
throughout  the  entire  life  of  the  animal.  There  are 
no  canine  teeth  present.  The  beavers,  rats,  mice, 
squirrels,  rabbits,  and  some  others  belong  to  this 
order. 

Order  ii.  Cheiroptera. — Includes  the  bats,  in 
which  forms  the  four  outer  or  ulna  fingers  are 
greatly  developed  and  elongated  and  are  united  by 
a  membrane  or  patagium,  which  is  continuous  from 
the  side  of  the  body  and  the  hind  limb.  Owing  to 
this  modification,  bats  possess  the  power  of  flight. 
Well-developed  clavicles  are  always  found  present 
in  these  forms. 

Order  12.  hisectivora. — Includes  the  moles, 
shrew-mice  and  hedgehogs.  They  are  all  of  small 
size,  and  possess  strong  claws,  which  are  used  for 
burrowing.  They  have  tapering  mouths  and  many 
sharply-pointed  teeth ;  the  canine  teeth,  however, 
are  either  small  or  absent.  There  are  clavicles 
present. 

Order  13.  Pri77iaies. — The  order  of  the  primates 
includes  the  most  highly  organized  members  of  the 
entire  animal  series:  the  lemurs,  the  monkeys,  the 
apes  and  man.  They  all  have  opposable  thumbs  on 
some  of  the  extremities,  and,  with  the  exception  of 
the  marmosets,  they  all  have  flat  nails  instead  of 
claws.     The  dental  formula  is  usually  : 

7-2  —  2      ^i  —  I       „2  —  2     ,,  X  —  ^ 

2  —  2  I  —  1  2  —  2         I  —  I 

The  brain  is  proportionally  more  developed  than 
3 


34  THE    ORDER    OF    THE    PRIMATES. 

the  brain  of  other  animals,  and  the  fore  limbs  are 
mainly  used  to  wait  on  the  head,  /.  e.,  prehension. 

The  primates  are  divided  into  two  sub-orders  :  the 
ProsimicE  and  the  Anthropoidea.  The  first  group 
includes  the  lemurs.  They  vary  from  the  size  of  a 
rabbit  to  that  of  a  monkey.  The  body  is  entirely 
covered  with  thick  fur ;  when  walking  they  go  on 
all  four  feet,  and  they  usually  possess  long  tails.  At 
the  present  time  the  distribution  of  the  lemurs  is 
limited  to  Madagascar,  Eastern  Asia  and  South 
Africa ;  in  earlier  times  their  distribution  was  proba- 
bly more  extensive,  as  the  bones  of  forms  ap- 
parently of  this  type  from  the  eocene  beds  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains  have  been  described  by  Cope  and 
Marsh. 

The  sub-order  Anthropoidea  are  ''characterized 
by  the  large,  convoluted  cerebral  hemispheres, 
which  nearly,  or  in  the  higher  apes  and  man,  con- 
ceal the  cerebellum  when  seen  from  above.  The 
ears  are  rounded,  with  a  distinct  lobule,  and  the 
two  mammse  are  pectoral."      (Packard.) 

They  are  divided  into  two  subdivisions ;  the  first 
includes  the  monkeys  and  the  apes,  and  the  second 
includes  only  man. 

The  American  monkeys  have  an  additional  pre- 
molar tooth  on  each  side  of  each  jaw.  They  usually 
have  prehensile  tails,  and  the  thumb  of  the  hand  is 
not  vv^ell  developed;  in  the  spider-monkeys  it  is  ab- 
sent. Their  nostrils  are  separated  by  a  very  wide 
partition,  and  are  hence  called  Platyrrhi7i(s.  They 
live  in  troops  mostly  in  the  forests  of  Brazil. 

The  Old  World  monkeys  and  apes  have  a  narrow 


THE    ORDER    OF    THE    PRIMATES.  35 

nasal  septum,  and  are  hence  said  to  be  catarrhifie  ; 
their  dentition  is  the  same  as  that  of  man,  and  their 
tails  when  present  are  never  prehensile.  The  mon- 
keys commonly  seen  in  menageries  are  the  macaques 
of  India.  The  baboons  have  elongated  jaws,  cheek 
pouches  and  callous  patches  upon  which  they  sit. 
The  only  species  now  living  in  Europe  is  the  Bar- 
bary  ape.  In  the  sacred  monkey  of  India  and  the 
thumbless  Colobus  of  Africa  they  have  no  cheek 
pouches,  the  stomach  is  more  complex  and  they 
possess  long  tails  and  callosities. 

The  highest  members  of  this  group  are  the  an- 
thropoid apes.  They  possess  no  tails,  callosities  nor 
cheek  pouches.  They  live  mainly  in  trees,  at  times, 
however,  walking  on  the  ground,  sometimes  in  a 
semi-erect  posture.  The  gibbon,  the  orang-outang, 
the  chimpanzee  and  the  gorilla  belong  to  this  group. 
The  gibbons  in  many  respects  resemble  the  mon- 
keys; they  are  less  than  3  feet  in  height  and  are 
slender  and  agile;  when  erect,  their  fingers  touch 
the  ground ;  they  possess  fourteen  pairs  of  ribs. 
They  belong  to  the  fauna  of  Southern  Asia.  The 
orang-outang  is  from  4  to  ^yi  feet  in  height  and 
has  twelve  pairs  of  ribs,  and  lives  in  Borneo  and 
Sumatra.  The  chimpanzee  and  the  gorilla  inhabit 
the  west  coast  of  Africa.  The  chimpanzee  stands 
about  5  feet  in  height  and  has  fourteen  pairs  of  ribs; 
it  lives  in  trees  and  eats  mainly  fruit;  they  travel,  as 
a  rule,  in  groups.  The  gorilla  sometimes  attains  a 
height  of  5^  feet  and  weighs  nearly  200  pounds, 
being  of  prodigious  strength;  it  has,  like  the  chim- 
panzee, fourteen  pairs  of  ribs  ;  its  habits  of  life  in 
general  resemble  those  of  the  chimpanzee. 


36  THE    FAMILY    HOMINID^. 

Man  was  first  placed  among  the  Primates  by  the 
great  naturalist  Linnseus,  and  belongs  to  the  family 
HominidcB.  When  Linnseus  thus  classified  man 
none  disputed  it  to  any  extent  until  the  time  of 
Darwin,  when  the  anti-evolutionary  philosophers,  in 
their  courageous  but  unwise  attempts  to  refute  evo- 
lution, endeavored  to  separate  man  from  animate 
nature  as  much  as  possible,  and  place  him  in  a  little 
hierarchy  of  his  own.  However,  naturalists  are 
now  quite  agreed  that  the  anatomical  characteristics 
possessed  by  man  are  such  that  he  without  question 
should  be  placed  in  the  order  of  the  Primates,  and 
that  he  belongs  to  that  particular  family  of  the 
Primates  denominated  the  Hominidse. 

In  this  family  locomotion  is  easiest  in  the  erect 
position;  the  thumb  is  opposable  to  the  other 
fingers;  the  great  toe  can  grasp  only  by  approxi- 
mation and  not  by  opposition.  The  muscles  which 
keep  the  body  erect,  such  as  those  of  the  back,  the 
extensors  of  the  hip-joint,  and  the  muscles  of  the 
calf  of  the  leg,  are  mmch  more  developed  propor- 
tionally than  the  corresponding  structures  in  the 
monkeys  and  apes.  The  vertebral  column  of  man 
presents  a  series  of  curves,  which  results  in  the 
centre  of  gravity  falling  between  the  feet.  The 
family  Hominidae  is  usually  considered  as  compris- 
ing only  the  genus  Homo  and  having  but  the  single 
living  species  Sapiens. 

The  study  of  man  as  a  species  constitutes  the 
science  of  Anthropology. 

The  anthropologist  studies  man  as  an  animal; 
and  although  he  possesses  certain  traits  which  are 


SPECIAL    CREATION.  37 

exclusively  human,  he  is  still,  nevertheless,  an 
organized  being  and  subject  to  the  same  laws  and 
conditions  of  other  organized  beings.  He  is  in 
certain  respects  the  superior  of  all  other  animals, 
but  in  other  respects  he  is  their  inferior. 

The  physiologist,  being  unable  to  perform  his 
experiments  upon  man,  experiments  upon  the 
lower  animals,  and  from  the  results  thus  gained  de- 
duces what  the  effect  would  be  upon  the  human 
subject.  So  it  is  with  the  anthropologist.  When 
he  observes  any  characteristic  in  man,  anatomical  or 
otherwise,  the  explanation  of  which  is  not  self- 
evident,  he  endeavors  to  observe  the  same  charac- 
teristic in  the  lower  animals,  and  thus,  by  studying 
the  subject  comparatively,  important  results  are 
frequently  obtained. 

The  first  consideration  that  confronts  us  in  the 
study  of  man  is  the  question  of  his  origin.  The 
two  ideas  held  at  the  present  time  are  that  man 
originated  through  Creation  or  Evolution. 

Those  believing  in  the  Doctrine  of  Special  Crea- 
tion believe  that  man  and  all  other  species  have 
been  specially  created  in  their  present  form  at  some 
point  within  their  present  geographical  habitat,  and 
that  variation  exhibited  by  them  is  within  certain 
definite  limits,  and  that  it  is  not  sufficient  to  pro- 
duce new  species. 

The  Doct7'ine  of  Ore;anic  Evolution  teaches  that 
man  and  all  of  the  other  organic  forms  are  not 
separate  creations,  but  that  each  bears  a  certain 
•lefinite  relationship  to  all  other  forms;  that  all 
organic  forms   undergo  modifications,  and   that  all 


38  ORGANIC    EVOLUTION. 

of  our  present  plants  and  animals  are  the  descend- 
ants of  pre-existing  plants  and  animals. 

The  factors  of  organic  evolution,  as  advanced  by 
Darwin,  and  commonly  referred  to  as  the  Darwinian 
theory,  are  as  follows  : 

(i)  All  species  of  animals  and  plants  exhibit  ten- 
dencies to  variation' from  the  parent  stock.  This 
may  be  readily  observed  in  the  young  of  any  of  our 
domesticated  animals ;  never  do  we  find  the  young 
absolutely  similar  to  the  parents.  These  variations, 
however  slight,  are  of  importance,  and,  through 
heredity,  are  transmitted  to  succeeding  generations. 
It  is  of  importance  to  remember  that  no  two  indi- 
viduals are  exactly  alike  in  all  particulars. 

(2)  The  environment  under  which  all  organic 
forms  are  placed  is  not  an  absolutely  unchanging 
one,  but  it  is  continually  varying,  and  the  organic 
forms  are  thus  placed  constantly  under  different 
conditions.  This  modification  of  external  condi- 
tions requires  a  corresponding  modification  on  the 
part  of  the  organism.  This  modification  may  be 
anatomical  or  otherwise,  but  modification  there 
must  be ;  if  it  does  not  occur,  the  extinction  of  the 
organism,  or,  ultimately,  even  the  species,  is  the  in- 
evitable result. 

(3)  All  organisms  produce  more  progeny  than 
can  possibly  survive,  hence  a  process  of  natural 
selection  ensues,  in  which  those  that  possess  any 
favorable  variation,  adapting  them  more  perfectly 
to  their  environment,  survive;  while  those  which  do 
not  possess  ,the  favorable  characteristics  are  placed 
at  a  disadvantage  in  the  struggle  for  existence,  and 
will  in  time  perish. 


ORGANIC    EVOLUTION.  39 

(4)  The  results  of  continued  use  and  disuse  are 
also  factors  of  importance  in  organic  evolution.  It 
is  well  known  that  the  continued  use  of  an  organ 
or  structure  tends  to  its  enlargement,  while  con- 
tinued disuse,  on  the  other  hand,  results  in  its  atro- 
phy or  degeneration.  This  w^as  first  pointed  out 
by  Lamarck,  and  has  since  been  verified  by  many 
naturahsts.  The  late  Prof.  E.  D.  Cope  has  thor- 
oughly illustrated  this  factor  in  many  of  its  import- 
ant bearings,  in  his  work  on  the  "Origin  of  the 
Fittest." 

The  value  of  any  theory  may  to  an  extent  be 
measured  by  the  number  and  the  importance  of  the 
facts  which  it  is  able  to  explain,  and,  furthermore, 
w^hen  a  natural  explanation  can  be  given  for  any 
phenomena  we  should  not  resort  to  a  supernatural 
explanation.  This  was  first  insisted  upon  by  Sir 
William  Hamilton,  and  it  constituted  what  he  de- 
nominated to  be  the  ''Law  of  Parsimony."  The  hy- 
pothesis of  organic  evolution  affords  the  most  natural 
explanation  that  has  ever  been  offered  to  explain 
the  origin  of  the  various  species  and  other  groups 
of  both  vegetable  and  animal  life ;  and  this  theory  is 
based  upon  the  most  thorough  investigation  as  to 
the  structure  and  the  life-history  of  organic  forms. 

The  credit  for  the  recognition  of  the  theory  of 
organic  evolution  belongs  largely,  of  course,  to 
Charles  Robert  Darwin,  but,  at  the  same  time,  we 
sliould  recognize  that  there  were  several  other  in- 
vestigators in  the  field  of  natural  science  before  his 
time  to  whom  great  credit  belongs  for  having  appre- 
ciated certain  significant  morphological  relationships 


40  ORGANIC    EVOLUTION. 

and  physiological  factors  of  great  importance  in  the 
development  of  life  along  the  lines  of  what  later 
became  the  development  theory. 

The  distinguished  French  naturalist  Jean  Lamarck 
in  the  year  1809  published  his  Philosophie  Zoologi- 
que.  In  this  work  it  is  easy  to  find  many  ideas 
which  distinctly  foreshadowed  our  present  ideas  of 
organic  evolution.  He  clearly  recognized  that 
adaptation  to  environment  was  a  cause  of  morpho- 
logical modification.  He  also  considered  that  habit 
as  to  the  use  and  disuse  of  structures  to  be  a  factor 
of  great  importance  in  the  modification  of  the  ani- 
mal structure.  He  was  one  of  the  earliest  natural- 
ists to  recognize  that,  in  the  origin  and  classifica- 
tion of  animals  we  cannot  have  a  linear  genetic 
series  continuing  from  the  lower  to  the  higher  with 
all  animal  forms  included  therein ;  but  that  relation- 
ships must  be  shown  by  a  branching  genealogical 
tree  in  which  the  highest  forms  of  one  group  of 
animals  may  not  necessarily  be  closely  allied  to  the 
lowest  forms  of  the  next  higher  group. 

Johann  Wolfgang  Goethe,  the  distinguished  poet- 
naturalist,  vv^ho  is  generally  remembered  only  as  the 
author  of  Faust,  made  some  contributions  to  nat- 
ural science  that  will  always  be  remembered.  He 
gave  especial  study  to  the  theory  of  homologies 
and  recognized  the  im.portance  of  the  recognition 
of  the  unity  of  type  in  related  groups.  In  the  year 
1790,  his  Metamorphosis  of  Plants  was  published,  in 
which  he  considered  that  all  of  the  parts  of  a  flower 
are  modifications  of  a  type  which  is  most  clearly 
seen   in    the   leaf.     This   is    decidedly  evolutionary. 


ORGANIC    EVOLUTION.  4^ 

His  theory  as  to  the  vertebral  origin  of  the  struct- 
ure of  the  skull  was  recognized  to  be  of  great  im- 
portance to  comparative  anatomy,  although  it  has 
since  been  greatly  modified  by  other  investigators. 
In  November,  1859,  Darwin's  work  The  Origm 
of  Species  by  mea7is  of  hatural  Selection  appeared, 
and   it  at  once  attracted   the  attention  of   students 
not  merely  of  the  biological  sciences  but  also  of  all 
other   departments   of   knowledge;   for   the   reason 
that  those  factors  which  have  been  operating  in  the 
production  of  the  various  life-forms  are  such  that 
apply  not  merely  to  organic  things,  but  also  to  the 
various   kinds  of  knovdedge  and  invention  as  have 
been  developed  by  mankind.     Thus  we  refer  to  the 
evolution  of  art,  science,  and  literature,  and  also  to 
the   many   sub-divisions   of   these   subjects.     Asso- 
ciated  with    Darwin  in  this  connection  was  Alfred 
Russel  Wallace,  who  had  spent  years  as  a  field  nat- 
uralist  in    the    Malay  Archipelago  and    who,  inde- 
pendently of    Darwin,  had  himself   recognized   the 
theory   of    Natural   Selection.      In   the    year    1858, 
Wallace  sent  his  views  to  Darwin  with  the  request 
to  present  them  to  Sir  Charles  Lyell.     Darwin  had 
written  a  preliminary  sketch   of   his    theory  in  the 
year  1848  but  had  never  published  it.     Sir  Charles 
Lyell  and    Sir   Joseph    D.  Hooker  had   long   been 
familiar  with  Darwin's  work,  and  they  induced  him 
to  publish  an  extract  of   his  work  along  with    the 
paper   by   Wallace.     Both    papers    appeared    sinuil- 
taneously  in   the  Journal  of   the    Linncan   Society 
for  August,  1858. 

For   evolution    to    have    succeeded    in   producing 


42  THE    NEBULAR    HYPOTHESIS. 

the  innumerable  varieties  of  organic  life,  so  diverse 
and  so  numerous,  including  both  the  vegetable  and 
the  animal,  forms  not  only  living  at  the  present 
time,  but  also  forms  long  since  extinct,  and  which 
are  now  exhumed  from  the  beds  of  the  earth,  where 
they  have  been  for  ages,  that  they  may  give  the  tes- 
timony of  their  history;  for  these  changes  to  have 
occurred,  a  long  period  of  time  in  the  life-history 
of  the  earth  must  have  been  necessary.  Have  we 
any  evidence  to  indicate  that  sufficient  time  has 
existed? 

The  universal  testimony  of  modern  science  is  that 
our  earth  is  very  much  older  than  it  was  previously 
supposed  to  be.  According  to  the  nebular  hypo- 
thesis, which  at  the  present  time  is  quite  generally 
accepted,  the  sun,  the  earth,  and  all  of  the  other 
planets  consisted  at  one  time  of  one  great  mass  of 
gaseous  matter,  such  as  the  faint  nebulae  that  astron- 
omers observe  at  the  present  time.  It  is  considered 
that  the  original  nebula  that  comprised  our  present 
sun  and  planetary  system,  continually  rotating  on 
its  own  axis,  gradually  condensed,  and  from  its 
mass  successive  portions  were  thrown  of  which 
subsequently  became  those  bodies  we  speak  of  as 
the  planets.  These  planets,  slowly  condensing  and 
cooling,  continued  to  revolve  around  the  sun,  which 
itself  is  slowly  but  surely  cooling  and  condensing. 
This  theory  explains  in  a  satisfactory  manner  the 
reason  why  the  earth  and  the  other  planets  are  so 
closely  related  to  and  dependent  upon  the  sun.  It 
also  explains  why  the  interior  of  the  earth  is  still  hot. 

When  the  earth  passing  through  these  different 


THE    GEOLOGICAL    FACTORS.  43 

changes  and  conditions  had  sufficiently  cooled,  con- 
densation began  and  various  changes  occurred,  each 
previous  change  rendering  succeeding  events  possi- 
ble. The  rocks  that  formed  the  original  crust  of 
the  earth  are  spoken  of  as  being  igneous  in  origin, 
because  they  were  formed  under  the  action  of  heat. 
Through  the  agency  of  water  these  igneous  rocks 
were  to  an  extent  worn  away  and  subsequently 
again  deposited.  Many  and  various  were  the  phe- 
nomena that  occurred  ;  and  gradually,  not  suddenly, 
the  nature  of  things  underwent  modification. 

The  earth  is  constantly  undergoing  changes. 
Through  the  mighty  agency  of  water  the  land  is 
especially  modified.  Every  spring,  rivulet  and 
stream  is  charged  with  a  certain  amount  of  solid 
material  or  sediment  which  is  being  carried  ulti- 
mately to  the  sea.  The  amount  of  solid  material  in 
any  stream  depends  on  a  number  of  circumstances; 
thus  the  character  of  the  substance  is  a  factor,  and 
the  depth,  velocity  and  general  character  of  the 
stream  are  others.  When  the  stream  or  river 
reaches  the  sea  the  solid  material  it  contains  is  de- 
posited in  layers,  which  by  geologists  are  termed 
strata. 

The  following  are  the  different  periods  of  geo- 
logical time  that  are  recognized  by  geologists  :  the 
oldest  rock  formations  and  those  which  were  igne- 
ous in  origin,  forming  the  original  primitive  crust 
of  the  earth,  have  been  called  the  Primeval. 
Whether  any  rocks  of  this  character  can  now  be 
recognized  is  very  doubtful.  The  oldest  of  the 
sedimentary  rocks,  or  those  deposited  through  the 


44  -THE    GEOLOGICAL    STRATIFICATIONS. 

agency  of  water,  are  the  Arches  an ;  they  do  not 
show  positive  evidences  of  contemporaneous  life, 
although  it  is  highly  probable  that  life  existed  at 
this  time.  The  next  period  is  the  Ca7nbriany  and 
this  was  abundantly  supplied  with  primitive  life 
forms;  molluscs,  crustaceans  and  the  trilobites  were 
quite  abundant.  The  succeeding  period  was  the 
Silurian,  in  which  the  mollusca  were  particularly 
abundant,  and,  in  addition  to  these,  the  animals  of 
the  highest  type — the  vertebrata — first  make  their 
appearance  in  the  form  of  the  earliest  iishes;  the 
coral-forming  animals  also  seem  to  have  been 
abundant  at  this  time.  The  succeeding  period,  the 
Devonian,  is  called  the  "  age  of  fishes,"  as,  during 
this  period,  the  cartilaginous  and  ganoid  fishes 
were  quite  common,  although  the  more  highly  or- 
ganized bony  fishes  had  not  as  yet  evolved.  Dur- 
ing this  time  vegetation  was  also  quite  abundant. 
During  the  next  epoch,  the  Carboniferous,  vegeta- 
tion was  luxuriant,  this  being  the  great  coal-bearing 
period.  The  amphibians  now  first  appeared,  and 
giant  forms  of  the  salamander  type  flourished.  In 
the  succeeding  period,  the  Permian,  the  reptiles  had 
evolved,  and  this  is  referred  to  as  the  "age  of  rep- 
tiles." Next  comes  the  Triassic  period,  which  is  of 
particular  importance,  owing  to  the  circumstance 
that  during  this  time  m.emibers  of  the  class  Mam- 
malia lived,  remains  of  which,  in  the  form  of  mar- 
supials, have  here  been  found.  The  other  life  forms 
in  general  show  also  a  progressive  development  to 
have  taken  place  over  those  organismxs  which  lived 
during  the  preceding  periods. 


THE    GEOLOGICAL    STRATIFICATIONS. 


45 


Epochs. 

Faunal  Characters. 

< 

Post-Pliocene  ^ 
Glacial 

Pliocene.  3,000  feet 
Miocene.  4.000  feet 

Eocene,  10,000  feet 

Man.  Mammals  of  living  species.  MoUusca 
recent. 

M 
N 

Mammals  of  recent  genera.  Living  species  rare. 
Mollusca  very  modern. 

o 
u 
o 

Mammals  of  living  families;  many  extinct  genera. 
Mollusca  largely  of  recent  species. 

o 

z 
< 
U 

Mammals  of  numerous  extinct  families  and  or- 
ders. All  the  species  and  moscof  the  genera 
extinct.     Modern  type  shell-fish. 

Laramie,  4.000  feet 

Passage  beds. 

> 

Cretaceous,  12,000  feet 
Chalk 

Jurassic,  6.000  feet 

Triassic,  5.000  feet 
New  Red  Sandstone 

Dinosaurian  (bird-like)  reptiles,  pterodactyles 
(flying  reptilesi,  toothed  birds,  earliest  turtles, 
ammonites. 

M 

« 
o 
(J 

Earliest  birds,  giant  reptiles,  ammonites,  clam 
and  snail  shells.  Decline  of  brachiopods. 
Butterfly. 

3 

o 

ai 
M 

Earliest  mammal  (marsupial),  two-gilled  cephal- 
opods.  reptilian  footprints. 

Permian,  5,000  feet 

Carboniferous,  26,000 
feet 
Coal 

Devonian,  18,000  feet 
Old  Red  Sandstone 

Silurian,  33.000  feet 
Cambrian.  24,000  feet 

Earliest  true  reptiles. 

< 

Earliest  amphibian.  Extinction  of  trilobites. 
Earliest  crayfish,  beetles,  cockroaches,  centi- 
peds,  spiders. 

o 
u 

Cartilaginous  and  ganoid  fishes.  First  land  and 
fresh-water  shells;  shell-fish;  decline  of  trilo- 
bites; May-flies;  crab. 

o 
o 

14 
J 
< 

Earliest  fish;  first  air-breathers  (insect  scorpion); 
brachiopods  and  ccphalopods;  trilobites: 
corals. 

Trilobites;  brachiopod  molluscs. 

o 

Archaean,  30.000  feet 

Huronian 

Laurentian 

Eozoon  (probably  not  a  fossil). 

< 

Primeval 

Non-sedimentary. 

The  Jurassic  period   comes   next,   and   here  have 


46  THE    GREAT    ICE    AGE. 

been  found  the  earliest  remains  of  birds  which  have 
many  reptilian  characteristics.  The  reptiles  also 
possessed  many  avian  characteristics,  as  the  power 
of  flight ;  and  they,  in  some  instances,  were  forms 
of  gigantic  size.  The  following  period  was  the 
Cretaceous,  during  which  age  many  bird-like  rep- 
tiles still  lived,  and  birds  possessing  teeth  were 
common.  True  bony  fishes  abounded  and  the 
mammalian  type  flourished.  During  the  Jurassic 
and  Cretaceous  periods  the  differentiation  of  the 
Vertebrata  probably  largely  occurred,  as  paleon- 
tology so  abundantly  supplies  forms  from  these  for- 
mations which  bridge  over  the  differences  of  struc- 
ture in  the  different  classes  of  the  vertebrata,  show- 
ing that  the  relationships  existing  between  these 
classes  during  these  periods  were  very  close.  The 
succeeding  formations,  the  Eocene,  the  Miocene,  the 
Pliocene  and  the  Post-Pliocene,  show  a  continuance 
of  the  evolutionary  process,  higher  forms  being 
found  in  each  succeeding  formation ;  and  finally  in 
the  last,  man  appears,  although  it  is  possible  that 
future  research  may  establish  an  earlier  date  for  his 
origin. 

During  this  last  period  there  also  occurred  an- 
other event  of  great  importance,  which  is  known  as 
the  Great  Ice  Age  or  the  Glacial  period,  owing  to 
the  circumstance  that  in  the  northern  hemisphere, 
and  perhaps  also  in  the  southern,  large  portions  of 
the  earth  were  covered  by  mighty  glaciers,  thou- 
sands of  feet  in  thickness  and  which  necessarily 
greatly  affected  all  forms  of  contemporaneous  life. 

These  periods,  here  so  briefly  outlined,  constitute 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    GEOLOGICAL    TIME.  47 

the  epochs  through  which  the  earth  has  passed  and 
during  which  evolution  has  operated  to  produce  the 
present  forms  of  hfe.  It  must  not  be  inferred  that 
the  causes  that  produced  these  great  changes  have 
ceased  to  operate,  for  such  is  not  by  any  means  the 
case.  The  factors  of  nature  that  have  operated  in 
the  past  are  stih  at  work  to-day,  and  it  is  inconceiv- 
able that  they  should  cease  to  be  the  factors  of  the 
future. 

It  is  by  the  study  of  the  different  stratifications 
and  the  fossils  contained  therein  that  geologists  are 
enabled  to  estimate  approximately  their  age.  It 
has  been  calculated  that  a  period  of  more  than  a 
million  years  was  necessary  for  the  formation  of  the 
carboniferous  strata,  the  coal-bearing  period  requir- 
ing probably  at  least  600,000  years.  The  eminent 
naturalist,  Humboldt,  considered  that  a  period  of 
nearly  1,000,000  years  was  necessary  for  the  forma- 
tion of  the  guano  deposits,  which  are  composed  of 
the  excreta  of  sea  birds.  On  the  authority  of  Croll, 
the  last  glacial  period  ended  at  least  100,000  years 
ago.  If  these  periods  separately  consumed  such 
long  durations  of  time,  collectively  the  time  required 
must  have  been  enormous,  far  beyond  anything  the 
mind  can  conceive  of.  Sir  Charles  Lyell  considered 
that  a  period  of  560,000,000  years  must  have  been 
necessary.  Other  scientists  consider  that  100,000,- 
000  years  is  suf^ciently  long  for  the  deposition  of 
all  of  the  different  stratifications  of  the  earth's  crust, 
from  the  earliest  to  those  of  the  present  time. 

While  there  are  many  estimations  of  geological 
time   made,  and   while    the  opinions   expressed  are 


48  THE    PLACE    OF    MAN's    ORIGIN. 

diverse,  they  all,  nevertheless,  agree  in  the  one  im- 
portant particular  that  the  different  changes  through 
which  the  earth  has  passed  to  reach  its  present 
condition  must  have  required  immense  periods 
of  time,  far  beyond  anything  of  which  we  can  con- 
ceive. 

The  place  and  the  time  of  the  origin  of  the 
human  species  bring  up  questions  that  can  only  at 
the  present  time  be  answered  approximately,  the 
data  so  far  accumulated  not  being  sufficient  for  the 
deduction  of  positive  opinions. 

However,  man  in  his  early  unprotected  condition, 
unable  to  battle  with  the  elements,  must  have  origi- 
nated in  some  portion  of  the  earth  where  the  climate 
and  other  physical  conditions  were  suitable  for  his 
existence.  The  climate  was  probably  a  tropical  or 
sub-tropical  one,  such  as  exists  in  Southern  Europe, 
Northern  Africa,  Southern  Asia,  Southern  North 
America  and  Northern  South  America.  Man  must 
further  have  originated  in  a  region  where  the  high- 
est of  the  lower  animals  exist,  or  at  one  time  existed, 
as  it  is  supposed  that  man  descended  from  some  of 
these  forms.  This  excludes  both  North  and  South 
America,  because  these  continents  have  never  been 
inhabited  by  any  animals  which  can  be  considered 
to  be  the  ancestors  of  man ;  this  leaves  the  birth- 
place of  the  human  species  at  some  point  in  the 
region  of  Southern  Europe,  Equatorial  Africa  or 
Southern  Asia. 

In  each  of  these  regions  there  exist,  or  at  one 
time  existed,  anthropoid  apes  which  closely  re- 
sembled  man.     In   Southern   France  the  bones  of 


THE    ANTHROPOID    APES.  49 

the  Dryopithecus  foiitani  have  been  exhumed  in  the 
valley  of  the  Garonne.  It  was  in  height  about  the 
size  of  a  man,  and  its  dentition  resembled  that  of 
some  primitive  peoples.  In  Southeastern  Asia  and 
some  of  the  Malay  Islands  are  found  many  species 
of  gibbons  or  long-armed  apes.  In  West  Africa, 
the  animals  bearing  the  closest  resemblance  to  man 
are  the  chimpanzee  and  the  gorilla. 

"By  universal  consent,"  says  A.  R.  Wallace,  ''we 
see  in  the  monkey  tribe  a  caricature  of  humanity. 
Their  faces,  their  hands,  their  actions  and  expres- 
sions present  ludicrous  resemblances  to  our  own." 
If  the  skeletons  of  the  higher  anthropoids  are  com- 
pared with  those  of  man,  we  find  all  of  the  bones, 
with  very  few  exceptions,  corresponding,  the  differ- 
ences being  those  of  degree  and  not  of  kind.  This 
resemblance  is  so  pronounced  that  Professor  Owen 
says  :  "  I  cannot  shut  my  eyes  to  the  significance  of 
that  all-pervading  similitude  of  structure — every 
tooth,  every  bone,  strictly  homologous — which 
makes  the  determination  of  the  difference  between 
Ho?no  and  Pithecus  the  anatomist's  difficulty. 

To  the  anatomist  or  physiologist  that  studies  but 
a  single  type  of  animal,  no  matter  how  competent 
or  how  thorough  he  may  be,  as  to  his  particular 
specialty,  the  origin  of  animal  structures  may  be  to 
him  incompreliensible;  but  to  him  who  approaches 
the  subject  from  the  standpoint  of  comparative 
anatomy  or  physiology,  guided  l^y  the  compass  of 
evolution,  the  explanation  afforded  thereby  becomes 
clear,  although  the  extent  and  character  of  struct- 
ural development  may  vary  greatly. 
4 


Jo  THE    ANTHROPOID    APES. 

The  resemblance  of  man  to  the  anthropoid  apes 
thus  being  so  pronounced,  we  must  very  naturally 
infer  that  both  are  the  result  of  closely  similar  con- 
ditions, and  that  they  both  have  originated  prob- 
ably in  a  geographical  area  in  common. 

It  should  always  be  remembered  that  the  evolu- 
tionist does  not  consider  that  man  was  descended 
from  any  of  the  living  species  of  anthropoid  apes, 
but  that  they  both  had  one  common  ancestor,  now 
extinct. 

While  perhaps  at  the  present  time  much  of  the 
evidence  seems  to  indicate  that  some  part  of  South- 
ern Asia  was  the  original  home  of  man,  there  are  a 
number  of  facts  which  make  it  not  improbable  that 
man  may  have  inhabited  as  his  earliest  home  a 
region  which  has  now  sunk  below  the  level  of  the 
sea. 

The  theory  has  been  advanced  that,  during  com- 
paratively recent  geological  times,  a  large  portion 
of  what  is  now  the  Indian  Ocean  was  occupied  by  a 
great  land  mass  which  stretched  from  Asia  as  far 
east  as  farther  India  and  the  Sunda  Islands  to  the 
southeastern  shores  of  Africa.  The  island  of  Mada- 
gascar is  considered  to  be  a  remnant  of  this  ancient 
continent.  The  geographical  distribution  of  animals 
and  plants  seems  to  indicate  that  this  land  mass  may 
have  existed.  This  land  has  been  denominated 
''  Lemuria,"  from  the  semi-apes  which  were  proba- 
bly characteristic  of  the  region.  If  this  land  did 
really  exist  at  the  time  that  has  been  assigned  to 
it,  it  may  be  possible  that  in  this  region  was  the 
cradle  of  the  human  species. 


ARCH^OLOGICAL    FINDS.  5I 

As  the  exact  geographical  area  in  which  man 
originated  cannot  at  the  present  time  be  definitely 
stated,  it  consequently  follows  that  the  exact  time 
of  his  origin  is  unknown.  The  question  can,  how- 
ever, be  considered  in  a  general  manner  with  evi- 
dence furnished  by  geology  and  archaeology. 

When  the  remains  of  man  or  the  implements  of 
human  workmanship,  such  as  weapons  and  tools, 
are  found  undisturbed  in  certain  deposits,  it  is  logi- 
cal to  infer  that  man  existed  on  the  earth  at  the 
time  these  remains  or  implements  were  deposited. 

Probably  the  first  scientist  of  note  to  insist  on  the 
great  antiquity  of  man  was  Boucher  de  Perthes. 
He  exhibited,  in  the  year  1838,  a  series  of  flint  im- 
plements found  by  him  in  the  valley  of  the  Somme, 
a  river  of  Northern  France,  wdiich  empties  into  the 
English  Channel.  This  river  runs  through  a  dis- 
trict composed  largely  of  wdiite  chalk,  which  is,  to  a 
certain  extent,  covered  with  Tertiary  deposits. 
These  Tertiary  deposits  are  in  turn  covered  by 
gravels,  and  it  is  in  these  deposits  that  the  remains 
of  human  workmanship  in  the  form  of  stone  imple- 
ments were  found,  also  the  bones  of  many  ani- 
mals, such  as  the  bear,  hyena,  elephant,  etc.  For 
years  the  discoveries  of  Boucher  de  Perthes  were 
ignored,  but  at  length,  when  his  investigations  were 
continued  and  verified  by  others,  they  were  finally 
accepted.  Among  the  many  eminent  scientific  men 
who  visited  the  locality  was  Sir  Charles  Lycll,  in 
whose  presence  a  number  of  Hint  implements  were 
found.  That  these  implements  were  of  human  work- 
manship, and  that  they  were  found  in  undisturbed 


52  ARCH^OLOGICAL    FINDS. 

deposits  associated  with  the  remains  of  animals  long 
since  extinct,  no  one  competent  to  pass  an  opinion 
doubts,  and  this  at  once  proves  that  the  antiquity  of 
man  reaches  for  back  into  the  prehistoric  past,  long 
before  the  pages  of  history  were  written  or  the  tales 
of  tradition  were  told. 

Since  these  discoveries  in  the  valley  of  the  Somme, 
many  other  flint  implements  have  been  found  in 
other  parts  of  Europe,  Asia  and  America.  Not  only 
have  the  remains  of  man  and  the  remains  of  extinct 
animals  been  found  together,  but  in  a  number  of 
instances  the  workmanship  of  man  is  found  on  the 
bones  of  these  extinct  animals.  It  has  been  found 
that,  in  nearly  all  of  the  animals  mentioned  as  hav- 
ing been  contemporaneous  with  man,  their  bones 
have  been  injured.  Sometimes  they  have  been 
broken,  evidently  with  the  intention  of  obtaining 
the  marrow  from  them,  which  was  presum.ably  used 
as  an  article  of  diet.  Or  in  some  instances  rude 
drawings  are  found  on  the  bones,  sometimes  of 
animals  which  at  that  time  were  living  species,  but 
which  now  are  extinct. 

Many  of  the  vestiges  of  early  man  have  been 
found  in  caves,  v/hich  seem  to  have  been  apparently 
the  favorite  resorts  of  primitive  man,  affording  him 
protection  from  the  elements  and  from  the  ferocious 
animals  which  were  contemporaneous  v/ith  him. 
Many  caves  have  been  examined,  and  much  valuable 
information  has  been  gained  therefrom. 

The  first  cave  to  attract  the  attention  of  scientific 
men,  and  which  threw  much  light  upon  the  antiquity 
of  man,  was  the  cave  of  Aurignac,  which  was  dis- 


ARCH^OLOGICAL    FINDS.  53 

covered  in  France,  near  the  town  of  Aurignac,  on 
the  southern  slope  of  the  Pyrenees.  M.  Lartet  ex- 
amined this  cave  most  carefully,  and  published  his 
account  of  it  in  the  year  1861.  This  cave  evidently 
represented  a  tomb,  which  vras  in  use  by  early  man 
of  the  stone  age  ;  the  entrance  was  closed  by  a  slab 
of  sandstone.  Inside  of  the  cave  were  found  the 
remains  of  a  number  of  skeletons  of  men,  vromen 
and  children,  associated  with  numerous  stone  imple- 
ments. The  remains  of  a  number  of  species  of 
animals  contemporaneous  with  man  at  that  tim.e 
were  also  found  here,  among  which  v/ere  the  cave 
bear,  the  mammoth,  the  horse,  the  cave  hyena,  the 
rhinoceros,  and  several  other  species.  Some  of  these 
animals  had  probably  been  eaten  at  the  cave,  as 
their  bones  showed  the  action  of  fire,  the  ashes  of 
which  were  discovered.  Many  of  the  bones  v>-ere 
scraped  and  furrowed,  evidently  by  flint  implements. 
All  of  the  human  remains  were  found  inside  of  the 
cave,  and  all  of  the  bones,  both  of  man  and  of  the 
lower  animals,  showed  the  signs  of  great  antiquity. 
The  age  of  these  remains  has  been  estimated  at  from 
10,000  to  50,000  years. 

The  well-known  kitchenmiddens  or  shell  heaps  of 
Denmark  throw  some  interesting  light  on  the 
antiquity  of  the  human  race.  These  kitchenmiddens 
are  composed  of  large  accumulations  of  shells  and 
also  to  a  lesser  extent  of  the  bones  of  fishes,  birds 
and  mammals.  These  remains  could  only  have  been 
accumulated  by  early  man,  and  represent  the  ani- 
mals that  served  him  as  food.  The  remote  presence 
of  man  here  is  also  indicated  by  stone  implements 
and  weapons. 


54  ARCH^OLOGICAL    FINDS. 

The  earliest  geological  period  at  which  man  is 
supposed  to  have  originated  is  during  the  earlier 
tertiary  formations.  Here  many  of  the  animals 
which  were  the  contemporaries  of  primitive  man 
have  been  found,  and  the  bones  of  man  and  his 
implements  have  here  also  been  associated.  This 
raises  the  question  :  Are  the  remains  of  man  as  old 
as  the  remains  of  the  animals?  This  question  first 
gave  rise  to  discussion  in  the  year  1863,  when  M. 
Desnoyers  reported  his  discovery  of  cut  and  split 
bones  from  the  gravel  pit  of  Saint  Prest.  Here  he 
found  the  tibia  of  a  rhinoceros,  showing  grooves 
and  incisions  similar  to  those  made  by  man  at  a 
later  period ;  these  gravel  deposits  were,  however, 
considered  by  some  geologists  to  be  early  quarter- 
nary,  rather  than  late  tertiary,  but  this  discovery  at 
least  takes  man  back  to  the  borders  of  the  tertiary 
period. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  International  Congress  of 
Prehistoric  Anthropology  and  Archaeology,  held  at 
Paris,  in  the  year  1867,  Professor  Issel  presented 
evidences  of  tertiary  man  of  Savonia.  Here,  in 
pliocene  deposits,  he  had  found  several  human  bones 
of  undoubted  antiquity. 

In  Italy  many  of  the  remains  of  the  workmanship 
and  also  the  bones  of  tertiary  man  have  been  found 
in  pliocene  deposits.  Signor  Capellini  has  discovered 
what  may  almost  be  considered  positive  proofs  of 
man's  existence  in  pliocene  times  in  the  clay  de- 
posits at  Monte  Aperto.  In  this  locaHty  he  has 
found  the  ribs  and  shoulder-blade  of  the  Balenotus 
marked   by   numerous    deep    incisions,    which   only 


THE    NEANDERTHAL    SKULL.  55 

could  have  been  made  by  a  sharp  instrument  in  the 
hands  of  a  man. 

In  Thenay  flints  of  human  workmanship  have 
been  found  in  the  miocene  (middle  tertiary)  de- 
posits by  Abbe  Bourgeois.  These  flints  are  of  var- 
ious forms  and  sizes,  and  are  generally  admitted  to 
have  been  made  by  man. 

Many  of  the  osseous  remains  of  primitive  man 
furnish  characteristics  which  indicate  that  he  w^as 
the  inferior  of  the  man  of  to-day.  Of  these  remains 
it  will  be  sufficient  to  call  attention  to  only  the  most 
important. 

In  the  small  valley  of  Neander,  a  tributary  to  the 
Rhine,  some  w^orkingmen,  in  the  year  1857,  opened 
a  cave  in  which  were  found  some  human  bones,  in- 
cluding a  portion  of  the  skull.  This  skull  has  since 
become  known,  world-wide,  as  the  Neanderthal 
skull.  It  is  considered  to  possess  many  ape-like 
characteristics,  as  the  prominent  supra-orbital 
ridges,  the  gradual  sloping  of  the  back  part  of  the 
head,  and  its  great  length  in  proportion  to  its 
width.  The  cranial  capacity  of  this  skull  is  1,200 
c.cm.  It  is  perhaps  the  most  ape-like  skull  of  a 
human  being  that  has  ever  been  discovered. 

In  addition  to  the  skull  portion  there  were  found 
two  humeri,  two  femora,  and  some  other  portions 
of  the  skeleton  ;  unfortunately  the  inferior  maxillary 
was  not  preserved.  In  the  vicinity  where  these 
remains  were  found,  there  were  also  obtained  the 
remains  of  the  rhinoceros,  cave  bear,  and  hyena. 
The  Neanderthal  specimens  are  now  in  the  Fuhlrott 
collection,  Elberfeld. 


56  THE    SPECIMENS    OF    SPY. 

In  the  commune  of  Spy,  in  Belgium,  two  interest- 
ing skulls  were  found  in  the  year  1886,  which  have 
since  become  known  as  the  ina^t  and  woma7t  of  Spy. 
The  remains  were  found  associated  with  those  of 
the  horse,  mastodon,  cave  hyena,  and  other  extinct 
species.  Flint  implements  were  also  found  here. 
Two  skeletons  were  unearthed ;  neither  of  them  was 
com.plete,  but  enough  of  them  was  obtained  to  furn- 
ish an  opinion  as  to  their  general  characteristics. 
One  of  these  skulls  v^^as  apparently  that  of  an  old 
v/oman,  and  the  other  of  a  man  of  middle  age. 
Both  of  these  skulls  were  quite  thick;  the  skull  of 
the  woman  was  long,  while  that  of  the  man  was 
slightly  shorter.  The  supra-orbital  regions  were 
pronounced,  and  the  foreheads  were  low.  The  jaws 
were  heavy  and  the  chins  were  very  small.  The 
tejeth  were  large,  and  the  third  molars  were  as  large 
as  the  others.  All  of  these  characteristics  indicate 
an  old  and  inferior  race. 

The  v/ell-known  cave  explorer.  Dr.  Edward  Du- 
pont,  in  the  year  1866,  found  at  Naulette,  in  Bel- 
gium, a  portion  of  a  very  remarkable  human  jaw. 
This  jaw  showed  an  almost  entire  absence  of  the 
chin,  and  as  the  prominent  chin  is  a  characteristic 
which  is  confined  to  man,  this  specimen  is  a  most 
significant  and  important  one.  The  lower  animals 
all  possess  a  retreating  chin,  and  hence  the  Naulette 
jaw  is  considered  in  this  particular  to  occupy  an 
intermediate  position.  The  dentition  of  this  jaw  is 
peculiar,  in  certain  respects  resembling  that  of  man, 
VN^hile  in  other  features  it  resembles  that  of  the  an- 
thropoid apes,  and  shows  some  very  marked  simian 


PITHECANTHROPUS    ERECTUS.  57 

characters  ;  the  teeth  were  unfortunately  lost,  but 
the  alveolar  processes  indicated  that  the  canine 
teeth  were  very  large  and  strong,  also  that  the 
molars  were  large,  increasing  in  size  posteriorly. 
Associated  with  this  jaw  the  remains  of  the  mam- 
moth, the  rhinoceros,  and  the  reindeer  were  found. 
The  Naulette  jaw  is  now  in  the  Brussels  Natural 
History  Museum. 

Of  the  later  discoveries  of  the  remains  of  early 
man,  none  surpass  in  value  or  interest  that  of  Dr. 
Eugene  Dubois,  who  found  (1891-94)  a  calavarium, 
a  third  upper  molar  tooth  and  a  femur,  in  beds  of 
presumably  pleistocene  age  in  the  island  of  Java. 
The  cranial  capacity  of  this  skull  has  been  esti- 
mated at  1,000  c.cm.,  which  is  about  midway  be- 
tween that  of  the  average  normal  of  man  and  that  of 
the  highest  anthropoid.  Virchow  has  pointed  out, 
however,  that  some  of  the  Negritos  have  a  cranial 
capacity  even  less  than  that  of  this  specimen,  and 
until  more  data  is  furnished  regarding  the  Java 
specimen  a  positive  conclusion  cannot  be  formed. 
Dr.  Dubois  has  called  the  specimen  Pithecanthropus 
eredus,  considering  it  to  be  not  only  a  new  species 
of  man,  but  also  a  new  genus,  and  also  a  new  family, 
which  he  denominated  the  Pithccanthropidcc. 

In  the  Thames  Valley,  Kent,  the  remains  of  a 
skeleton  were  found  by  Mr.  R.  Elliott  and  ]\Ir. 
Matthew  Hays-  in  pleistocene  gravels  associated 
with  many  paleolithic  implements  and  the  remains 
of  extinct  mammals.  The  skull  was  exceedingly 
long,  narrow,  and  much  depressed  with  the  fore- 
head receding.     The  main  sutures  were  obliterated. 


58  CAVE    OF    MENTONE. 

These  remains  are  without  doubt  very  ancient,  and 
the  most  primitive  that  have  been  found  in  England. 

At  Podbada,  near  Prague,  a  portion  of  a  skull 
was  found  in  clay  deposits  in  1883,  in  the  vicinity  of 
which  were  also  the  remains  of  the  rhinoceros, 
trichorhinus,  and  reindeer.  The  superciliary  ridges 
were  very  prominent  in  this  specimen,  and  the 
frontal  region  was  quite  receding.  A  very  primi- 
tive skull  was  also  found  at  Marcilly-sur-Eure, 
Evreux  district,  which  was  exposed  by  a  railway 
cutting,  and  which  is  now  in  the  Dore-Deleute  col- 
lection, Dreux. 

An  inferior  maxillary  was  found  at  Arcy-sur-Eure, 
Yonne,  Grotte  des  Fees,  which  in  some  particulars 
resembles  the  Naulette  jav/.  Associated  therewith 
were  found  rhinoceros  teeth. 

In  the  cave  of  Mentone,  Liguria,  human  remains 
have  been  found  which  are  of  a  very  primitive  type, 
and  with  which  were  associated  the  remains  of 
extinct  animals  which  were  contemporaneous  with 
early  man. 

At  Eguisheim,  near  Colmar,  a  portion  of  a  human 
skull  was  found  in  the  year  1865  associated  with  the 
remains  of  the  mastodon.  The  skull  was  quite  long, 
with  prominent  superciliary  ridges,  and  without 
doubt  it  is  a  very  ancient  specimen. 

From  all  of  this  evidence  we  see  that  primitive 
man  was  a  savage  being,  living  upon  the  products 
of  the  chase,  and  dwelling  in  the  cavities  of  the 
rocks.  His  struggle  for  existence  was  severe,  bat- 
tling on  the  one  hand  with  the  forces  of  nature  and 
on  the  other  with  savage  animals.     Is  it  not  truly 


TIME    OF    MAN  S    ORIGIN.  59 

wonderful  that  he  should  have  survived  ?  His  suc- 
cess in  this  great  struggle  for  life  was  not  due  to  any 
physical  development  he  alone  possessed,  apart  from 
the  development  of  his  brain,  because  physically  he 
was  greatly  inferior  to  many  animals  with  which  he 
was  contemporaneous.  Yet,  when  the  struggle  be- 
tween man  and  the  ferocious  beasts  of  prehistoric 
times  began,  man  came  off  the  victor,  and  he  doubt- 
less was  an  important  factor  in  causing  the  extinc- 
tion of  such  species  as  were  uncongenial  to  him. 
Man  owes  this  success  mainly  to  the  superior  de- 
velopment of  his  brain,  and  while  the  brain  of 
primitive  man  was  doubtless  inferior  to  that  of  man 
of  the  present  time,  it  was,  nevertheless,  sufBcient 
to  give  him  the  great  advantage  as  the  principal 
actor  in  the  drama  of  life. 

The  number  of  years  that  have  elapsed  since  man 
first  became  man  in  the  evolutionary  progress  of  the 
history  of  life  is  a  question  that  cannot  be  answered; 
instead  of  considering  years,  we  are  compelled  to 
recognize  ages,  each  of  wdiich,  from  geological  evi- 
dences, has  probably  occupied  thousands  of  years. 
From  geological  and  archaeological  data,  relative  to 
this  subject,  the  opinion  held  by  the  majority  of 
anthropologists  at  the  present  time  is  that  man 
originated  from  50,000  to  100,000  years  ago,  and  by 
some  even  a  longer  period  of  time  is  assigned. 

As  early  man  differed  in  certain  respects  from  his 
descendants  of  the  present  time,  so  do  the  living 
members  of  the  human  species  differ  to  a  lesser  ex- 
tent from  one  another.  We  know  that  no  two  indi- 
viduals   are    exactly    alike    in    all    particulars ;    they 


6o 


THE    SKELETON. 


may  resemble  one  another  in  the  color  of  the  skin, 
in  the  height,  or  in  some  other  respects,  yet  close 
examination  is  sure  to  reveal  differences,  and  it  is 
the  study  of  these  differences  in  man  which  forms 
the  basis  of  the  science  of  ethnology.  In  consider- 
ing the  differences  between  the  different  members 
of  the  human  family,  it  is  advisable  to  consider  the 
most  pronounced  characteristics  presenting  varia- 
tions first,  and  afterwards  give  attention  to  those 
which  are  less  marked  and  usually  less  significant. 
Anatomical  variations  in  all  classifications  are 
always  considered  to  be  of  first  importance,  and  to 
underlie  all  other  variations,  and  in  anthropology 
and  ethnology  there  is  no  reason  for  departing  from 
the  zoological  method  when  it  can  be  followed. 

The  skeleton  presents  the  most  important  varia- 
tions from,  the  anthropological  standpoint.  The 
head,  the  trunk  and  the  extremities  all  furnish  some 
characters  which  vary  in  the  different  races  of  i-  r  ^ 
The  skull  has  received  the  greatest  attention  and 
it  furnishes  the  most  reliable  data  in  the  compara- 
tive study  of  man.  When  we  say  that  a  certain 
race  possesses  a  certain  character  of  skull  it  must 
not  be  inferred  that  each  and  every  member  of  that 
race  has,  without  exception,  a  skull  of  the  character 
designated,  because  such  is  not  the  case;  there  is 
ever  present  the  tendency  to  variation,  and  our 
opinion  is  based  upon  the  character  of  skull  that 
predominates  in  the  race  under  consideration ;  that 
is,  our  opinion  is  based  upon  that  which  is  the  rule, 
and  not  upon  that  which  is  the  exception.  Much 
confusion  has  arisen  at  times  from  not  clearly 
recognizing  this  fact. 


THE    SKULL.  6l 

The  form  of  the  cranium  depends  particularly  on 
the  length  measured  from  front  to  back  in  relation 
to  the  breadth  from  side  to  side.  The  former  con- 
stitutes the  longitudinal  diameter,  and  the  latter, 
the  transverse  diameter. 

Considering  loo  to  represent  the  longitudinal 
diameter  of  a  skull,  and  75  to  represent  the  trans- 
verse diameter  of  the  same  skull,  we  would  have 
the  ratio  of  75:  100,  which  represents  quite  a  long 
skull.  The  ratio  of  80:100  would  represent  a 
medium  skull.  The  ratio  of  85  :  100  would  be  found 
in  a  short  skull.  The  long  skull  is  said  to  be 
dolicho-cephalic;  the  medium  skull  is  yneso-ccplialic; 
and  the  short  skull  is  brachy-cephalic. 

Certain  characters  are  furnished  by  the  examina- 
tion of  the  face,  one  of  the  most  important  of  which 
is  the  nose.  If  the  nasal  aperture  is  broad,  the 
nose  is  correspondingly  broad  and  flat;  while  if 
the  nasal  aperture  is  narrow,  the  nose  is  likewise 
narrow.  The  former  is  known  as  the  leptorhinian, 
and  the  latter  is  the  platyrhiniaii.  There  may  be 
a  modification  between  these  two,  the  medium, 
which  is  called  the  mesorhinian. 

The  orbit  of  the  eyes  furnishes  a  character  known 
as  the  orbital  index.  This  index  is  the  proportion 
of  the  vertical  diameter  of  the  orbit  to  the  trans- 
verse diameter.  In  the  Chinese  this  proportion  is 
about  93:  100;  while  in  the  man  of  Cro-magnon  it 
is  about  61  :  100. 

In  the  Black  race  the  whole  face,  and  especially 
the  maxillaries,  projects  forward.  This  character 
constitutes  prognatJiisin.     All   individuals  are  to  a 


62  THE  ANGLES  OF  THE  SKULL. 

certain  extent  prognathous;  but  when  it  is  sHght, 
as  in  the  White  race,  it  is  designated  as  orthogna- 
thism. 

The  anatomist  Peter  Camper  was  induced  to 
study  the  relative  difference  in  the  development  of 
the  face,  by  seeing  the  artists  of  his  time  represent 
negroes  as  whites  painted  black.  Camper  carefully 
studied  the  anatomical  characters  of  the  skull,  and 
the  result  was  the  recognition  of  the  facial  angle 
which  has  subsequently  been  of  such  great  value  to 
craniologists. 

The  facial  angle  is  subtended  by  a  line  extending 
from  the  auditory  canal  to  the  root  of  the  nose,  and 
another  line  extending  from  the  most  prominent 
point  of  the  foreherd  to  the  nasal  bone.  This  angle 
varies  from  about  70°  to  80°  in  the  different  races 
of  man. 

Another  important  angle  is  the  maxillary  angle, 
which  is  formed  by  a  line  from  the  most  prominent 
point  on  the  forehead  to  the  most  prominent  point 
on  the  maxillaries,  and  another  line  from  the  most 
prominent  point  of  the  maxillaries  to  the  most 
prominent  point  of  the  chin;  these  lines  intersect 
and  the  angle  formed  varies  in  size  from  140°  to 
160°. 

The  teeth  are  in  many  instances  of  value  in  the 
comparative  study  of  man.  In  the  savage  races 
they  are  usually  larger  and  stronger  than  they  are 
in  civilized  man.  Among  some  tribes  the  canine 
teeth  are  larger  than  among  others.  The  third 
molar  or  ''wisdom  teeth"  are  usually  furnished 
with  three  separate  fangs,  or  roots,  among  the  dark- 


THE    HAIR    OX    CROSS-SECTION.  63 

skinned  races,  while  in  the  White  race  these  teeth 
possess  only  two  separate  roots  and  are  usually 
much  smaller  in  size. 

In  the  trunk,  the  most  important  racial  character- 
istic is  found  in  the  bones  of  the  pelvis.  The  iliac 
bones  in  the  Black  races  are  more  vertical  in  posi- 
tion than  they  are  in  the  White  race.  Weber  con- 
sidered that  the  shape  of  the  inlet  was  a  feature  of 
racial  importance;  in  the  White  race  he  considered 
it  to  be  nearly  oval;  in  the  Yellow  race,  quadrilat- 
eral; in  the  Red  race,  round,  and  in  the  Black  race, 
cuneiform. 

In  the  negro  the  arm  is  proportionally  much 
longer  than  in  the  White.  This  character  is  quite 
constant  and  is  due  to  the  length  of  the  bones  of 
the  forearm,  the  radius  and  ulna  being  longer  than 
they  are  in  the  White  race. 

At  the  lower  end  of  the  humerus  is  sometimes 
found  the  inter-condyloid  foramen;  it  is  more  fre- 
quently observed  in  the  lower  races  of  man  and  in 
the  bones  of  ancient  man  than  it  is  in  the  living 
members  of  the  higher  races. 

Leaving  the  skeleton,  we  find  that  the  remaining 
ethnic  characters  of  especial  importance  are  found 
in  the  hair  and  in  the  skin.  A  cross-section  of  the 
hair  in  the  members  of  the  different  races  presents 
several  different  outlines;  the  diameter  of  the  cross- 
section  varies  from  about  25:  100  to  about  90:  100, 
the  more  circular  the  section,  the  straighter  the 
hair;  while  the  flatter  the  outline,  the  more  curly 
or  wooly  the  hair.  In  the  Chinese  the  hair  shows 
on   cross-section   an  almost   perfect  circle  and   the 


64  RACES    OF    MAN. 

hair  is  straight.  In  the  negroes  the  cross-section 
departs  greatly  from  the  circular  outline,  and  the 
hair  is  woolly.  In  the  White  race  the  hair  is  con- 
sidered to  be  wavy,  and  a  cross-section  reveals  an 
outline  between  that  of  the  Mongolian  and  the 
African. 

The  color  of  the  skin  is  recognized  by  all  as  being 
a  valuable  character  in  the  study  of  mankind,  and 
from  this  standpoint  all  of  the  races  of  man  can  be 
divided  into  four  different  groups,  or  races,  as  fol- 
lovv^s:  The  Black  or  Negro  of  Africa;  the  Yellow  or 
Mojigoltan  of  Asia;  the  Red  or  Indian  of  North, 
Central  and  South  America;  and  the  White,  com- 
monly known  as  the  Caucasian,  of  Europe. 

In  the  large  majority  of  cases  the  color  serves  as 
a  valuable  index  to  racial  criteria;  but,  at  the  same 
time,  as  all  tend  to  merge  by  almost  imperceptible 
degrees  into  each  other,  it  cannot  be  considered  to 
be  an  infallible  guide.  Anthropologists  that  accept 
this  classification  based  on  color,  use  it  not  because 
it  is  an  ideal  one,  for  such  is  not  the  case,  but 
simply  because  it  is  considered  to  be  one  of  the  best 
and  most  convenient  available.  Some  investigators 
have,  and  with  good  reason,  rejected  giving  to  the 
American  Indian  the  status  of  a  race,  contending 
that  the  differentiation  is  not  sufficient  to  separate 
them  from  the  Yellow  or  Mongolian  race. 

In  dividing  mankind  into  these  several  groups, 
we,  of  course,  recognize  that  all  of  them  differ  more 
or  less  from  each  other,  i.  e.,  they  are  not  all  equal, 
and,  not  being  equal,  it  necessarily  follows  that 
some  are  superior,  while  others  are  inferior.     The 


POLYGENISM    AND    MONOGENISM.  65 

race  presenting  the  most  marked  characters  resem- 
bling primitive  man,  anatomical  or  otherwise,  is  the 
lowest;  and  the  race  which  has  those  characters 
most  highly  differentiated  is  the  highest.  Measured 
by  these  criteria,  the  White  race  is  the  highest  and 
the  Black  race  is  the  low^est. 

When  we  recognize  the  existence  of  the  several 
different  races  of  man,  the  question  naturally  arises 
as  to  whether  these  races  are  the  descendants  of  one 
original  race  of  man,  or  the  descendants  of  several 
different  primitive  stocks.  This  question,  especially 
in  times  gone  by,  has  caused  much  difference  of 
opinion  among  anthropologists.  The  Polygenists, 
on  the  one  side,  consider  that  the  differences  be- 
tween the  different  races  are  the  result  of  different 
origins ;  and  the  Monogenists,  on  the  other,  believe 
that  the  living  races  of  man  are  derived  from  one 
common  primitive  stock  and  that  such  differences 
as  they  present  are  merely  the  result  of  environ- 
ment and  other  factors,  such  as  those  under  which 
all  organic  forms  live.  The  tendency  of  opinion  of 
scientific  men  of  the  present  time  is  to  believe  in 
the  single  origin  of  the  human  species. 

This  question  has  at  times  had  an  important  bear- 
ing on  political  matters  when  racial  questions  have 
been  considered.  Such  was  the  case  in  the  United 
States  in  the  year  1844  during  the  administration 
of  President  Tyler.  The  Hon.  John  C.  Calhoun 
was  at  the  time  Secretary  of  State,  and  was  con- 
ducting diplomatic  negotiations  relative  to  the  an- 
nexation of  Texas.  In  quite  a  long  controversy 
England  continued  to  interfere  with  the  institution 

5 


66  POLITICS    AND    RACIAL    RELATIONSHIP. 

of  negro  slavery;  and  Mr.  Calhoun,  desiring  to  pre- 
sent as  strong  a  case  as  possible  for  the  custom  of 
slavery,  consulted  two  of  the  most  prominent  Amer- 
ican anthropologists  of  that  time.  These  were  Mr. 
George  R.  Gliddon  and  Dr.  Samuel  George  Mor- 
ton, and  with  the  aid  of  special  volumes  on  the 
subject,  furnished  by  the  latter  gentleman,  he  found 
that  the  races  in  the  past  had  existed  approximately 
in  their  present  relationship  to  each  other  as  far 
back  as  they  could  be  traced,  which  was  a  period  of 
at  least  4,000  years,  whether  an  original  diversity 
of  origins  be  admitted  or  not.  Although  there  was 
objection  by  some  to  the  introducing  of  scientific 
questions  of  a  rather  technical  nature  into  dip- 
lomatic correspondence.  Great  Britain  finally  assured 
our  government  that  it  had  no  intention  of  meddling 
in  our  domestic  affairs. 


CHAPTER  11. 

THE    BLACK     (aFRICAX)     RACE. 

Contexts. — The  characteristics  of  the  race.  Color  of  the  skin. 
The  hair.  The  skull.  The  jaws.  The  cheek  bones.  The 
nasal  index.  Stature.  The  branches  of  the  race.  The  Ne- 
grillos. The  Pigmies,  their  distribution  and  characteristics. 
The  Akkas,  the  Wochua,  the  Andamanese,  and  the  Batwa. 
The  Hottentots,  their  distribution  and  characteristics.  The 
Bushmen,  their  distribution  and  characteristics.  The  true 
Negroes.  The  Soudanese  and  their  distribution.  The  Wolofs, 
the  Serers,  the  Baniuns,  the  Mandingoes,  and  others.  The 
Bantuas,  their  characteristics  and  distribution.  The  Zulus  and 
the  Kafirs.  The  ability  of  the  Negro.  Slavery.  Status  of  the 
race  in  America. 

THE  Black  race  has  from  the  earHest  times  in- 
habited the  continent  of  Africa.  The  members 
of  this  race  are  in  general  identified  by  the  color  of 
their  skin,  which  is  usually  of  a  black,  or  blackish 
tint,  sometimes  even  being  almost  sooty  black;  it  is 
velvety  and  cool  to  the  touch  and  emits  a  distinct 
and  very  characteristic  odor. 

The  physiognomy  of  the  Black  is  so  decidedly 
characteristic  that  it  is  impossible  not  to  recognize 
it  even  if  the  individual  were  not  identified  by  the 
color  of  the  skin. 

The  hair  is  jet  black,  and  frizzly,  or  "woolly;" 
and  on  transverse  section  it  exhibits  an  almost  flat 
outline. 

The  skull  is  usually  dolichocephalic ;  the  jaws 
are  prognathous;    the  cheek    bones  are  high;    the 

(67) 


68  GROUPS    OF    THE    BLACK    RACE. 

nose  is  broad  and  flat,  and  the  lips  are,  as  a  rule, 
thick  and  to  an  extent  everted. 

In  stature  the  members  of  this  race  are  generally 
somewhat  above  the  average  height,  although  there 
are  a  number  of  negro  tribes  below  the  average ; 
they  have  a  large  bony  frame,  stout  and  robust,  but 
proportionally  weak  in  the  lower  extremities. 

The  Black  race  may  be  divided  into  the  following 
three  different  groups  :  The  Negrillos,  the  Negroes 
and  the  Negroids.  These  groups  in  a  general  man- 
ner all  possess  the  salient  characteristics  which 
distinguish  the  race,  but  in  many  of  the  minor 
characteristics  they  present  considerable  variation. 
Between  these  groups  all  degrees  of  intermediate 
variation  can  be  recognized. 

The  word  Negrillo  is  derived  from  the  Spanish 
and  is  the  diminutive  form  of  the  w^ord  negro.  The 
most  important  members  of  the  negrillo  branch  are 
the  Pig/uies,  the  Hottentots  and  the  Bushmen. 

The  Pigmies  inhabit  that  portion  of  the  African 
continent  from  about  two  or  three  degrees  north  of 
the  equator  southward  into  the  region  of  the  Congo 
River. 

Certain  of  the  ancient  writers,  as  Aristotle,  Hero- 
dotus and  Homer,  made  reference  to  dwarf  tribes, 
but  their  accounts  were  considered  mythical  until 
recent  times,  when  these  little  people  were  re-dis- 
covered by  later  explorers.  The  Pigmies  were  re- 
discovered by  Schweinfurth,  who  found  the  Akkas 
inhabiting  the  region  about  3°  north  latitude  and 
25°  east  longitude.  He  was  able  to  obtain  one  of 
these  Akkas  in  exchange  for  one  of   his  dogs,  in- 


THE    PIGMIES.  69 

tending  to  take  him  back  to  Europe,  but  at  Berber, 
south  of  Khartoum,  he  died.  Later  travellers,  as 
DuChaillu,  Stanley,  Emil  Bey,  and  others,  have  seen 
and  given  descriptions  of  these  people.  The  travel- 
ler Miani  later  obtained  two  young  Akkas  that  were 
taken  to  Europe  and  which  have  since  been  most 
thoroughly  studied  by  different  anthropologists. 

The  Pigmies  vary  in  height  from  about  3  feet  4 
inches  to  slightly  less  than  5  feet.  Except  for  the 
prominence  of  the  abdominal  region,  they  are  well 
proportioned,  remarkably  agile,  quite  intelligent, 
and  are  daring  and  expert  hunters.  They  are 
adepts  in  the  use  of  the  bow  and  arrow  and  the 
spear,  and  do  not  hesitate  to  attack  the  largest 
game,  such  as  the  buffalo  and  the  elephant.  It 
seems  probable  that  at  one  time  the  Pigmies  were 
much  more  numerous  than  they  are  at  the  present 
day,  and  that  their  populations  were  more  continu- 
ous. The  other  African  tribes  have  encroached 
upon  them  and  their  final  extinction  seems  almost 
inevitable. 

''They  are  in  no  sense  a  degraded  race,  fallen 
from  a  higher  state,"  says  Keane,  "but  obviously  a 
small  people,  arrested  in  their  development,  prob- 
ably by  an  adverse  environment." 

According  to  De  Ouatrefages,  the  Pigmies  are 
brachycephalic  or  sub-brachycephalic,  while  the 
Bushmen  are  dolichocephalic  or  sub- dolichocephalic, 
this  being  an  anatomical  character  of  considerable 
interest  and  importance.  The  various  tribes  of 
pigmy  people,  besides  the  Akkas,  are  the  IVochua, 
the  Andamanese,  the  Bahva,  and  others.  The  no- 
menclature regarding  them  is  by  no  means  uniform. 


70  THE    HOTTENTOTS. 

South  Africa  is  inhabited  largely  by  the  Hotten- 
tots and  Bushmen.  These  two  peoples  to  an  extent 
have  certain  resemblances  in  common,  but  at  the 
same  time  present  such  physical  differences  and 
also  pursue  such  different  modes  of  life  that  it  be- 
comes probable  that  the  relationship  existing  be- 
tween them  is  not  as  close  as  many  anthropologists 
have  previously  supposed. 

Many  anthropologists  consider  that  the  smaller 
African  peoples,  i.  e.,  the  Pigmies,  the  Hottentots 
and  the  Bushmen,  are  probably  the  lineal  descend- 
ants of  the  original  inhabitants  of  the  continent. 

It  is  considered  by  many  that  the  Bushmen  and 
Hottentots  possibly  occupied  at  one  time  during 
the  remote  past  history  of  the  human  species  the 
greater  portion  of  South  Africa  from  the  Soudan  to 
the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  that  they  have  grad- 
ually diminished  in  numbers  and  influence  owing  to 
the  oppression  of  other  African  peoples  from  the 
north  and  later  the  Europeans  in  the  south.  This 
perhaps  may  have  been  the  case,  but  the  evidence 
of  its  truth  is  decidedly  meagre. 

The  word  Hottentot  signifies  a  stammerer,  and 
was  applied  to  these  people  in  ridicule  of  the  click- 
ing sounds  of  their  words  by  the  Dutch  who  founded 
Cape  Colony  in  1652.  They  call  themselves  Khoii- 
Khoi,  which  signifies  "  the  men."  They  are  still 
numerous  in  Cape  Colony,  constituting  nearly  one- 
seventh  of  the  entire  population. 

In  height  they  average  about  5  feet  4  or  5  inches; 
their  hands  and  feet  are  small ;  the  muscular  de- 
velopment   is    poor ;    the    skull    is    dolichocephalic ; 


THE    HOTTENTOTS.  Jl 

the  face  is  prognathic ;  the  mouth  is  large,  with 
thick  protruding  Hps.  An  important  characteristic 
found  in  the  Hottentot  women  is  the  elongation  of 
the  labia  minora,  making  the  so-called  ''  Hottentot's 
apron.'' 

The  Hottentots  were  said  to  be  cattle  breeders 
when  they  were  first  known  to  the  Portuguese ; 
they  also  depended  largely  upon  wild  plants  and 
roots,  but  gave  little,  if  any,  attention  to  agricul- 
ture. Their  houses  were  built  of  sticks  stuck  into 
the  ground,  and  then  lashed  together  at  the  top  and 
covered.  Their  clothing  consisted  of  aprons  and 
cloaks,  and  from  motives  of  modesty  the  women 
wore  fur  caps.  They  made  an  intoxicating  beverage 
from  honey,  and  now  drinking  is  quite  a  prevalent 
custom  among  them.  Their  weapons  of  warfare 
comprized  spears,  darts  and  shields  for  defense. 
They  were  conversant  with  the  art  of  smelting  iron 
ore  and  manipulating  the  metal.  They  were  ac- 
customed to  the  use  of  oxen  as  beasts  of  burden 
from  very  early  times.  For  purposes  of  cooking 
earthen  vessels  were  used. 

It  was  formerly  considered  that  they  were  entirely 
destitute  of  any  religious  sentiment,  but  such  now 
hardly  seems  to  be  correct.  They  attribute  super- 
natural powers  to  their  ancestors,  and  invoke  them 
on  all  serious  matters.  They  bury  their  dead  with 
great  solemnity,  and  over  the  grave  place  heaps  of 
stones,  or  cairns.  Owing  to  these  cairns  the  study 
of  the  distribution  of  these  people  has  been  greatly 
facilitated.  Their  religious  deity  is  Tsunigoam ; 
they  believe  in  a  future  life,  perform  certain  religious 


72  THE    HOTTENTOTS. 

ceremonies  and  say  prayers.  Some  of  them  without 
doubt  worshipped  the  moon  which  they  regarded  as 
being  of  the  mascuhne  gender.  There  were  among 
them  Shamans  who  were  supposed  to  be  able  to 
exercise  power  over  the  elements  and  to  be  able  to 
produce  rain,  or  sunshine  or  cast  out  the  spirits  of 
disease  at  will. 

Beyond  the  British  possessions  and  the  Dutch 
republics  each  tribe  has  its  own  chief,  but  as  their 
political  organization  is  very  loose,  he  possesses  but 
little  influence. 

With  the  progress  of  civilization  the  Hottentot 
tribes  seem  doomed  to  extinction.  ''What  has  be- 
come of  the  Koranas,  who  had  their  camping 
grounds  on  the  shores  of  the  Table  Bay  when  the 
first  European  colonists  settled  in  the  country,  and 
of  the  Gri-Kwas  (Griquas),  who  encamped  farther 
north  near  St.  Flelena  Bay?"  says  Reclus.  ''Many 
other  tribal  groups,  such  as  the  Gauri,  San,  Atta, 
Haisse,  Sussi,  Dama,  Dun,  and  Shirigri,  have  also 
disappeared,  leaving  no  memory  behind  them  ex- 
cept the  names  given  by  them  to  their  rivers  and 
mountains." 

Many  of  the  Hottentot  tribes  still  resisting  Eng- 
lish civilization  have  withdrawn  northward ;  and 
it  seems  that  the  most  undesirable  of  them  have 
remained.  The  Hottentot  of  the  present  time  at 
Cape  Colony,  on  the  whole,  seems  to  have  the  repu- 
tation of  possessing  more  vices  and  fewer  virtues 
than  any  people  known.  He  hates  work  of  any 
kind.  He  loves  rum  and  tobacco,  and  frequently 
indulges  in  the  smoking  of  dacha,  or  hemp.  Added 
to  all  of  these  is  his  extreme  filthiness. 


THE    BUSHMEN.  73 

Dwelling  in  the  region  of  the  great  Kalibari 
Desert  are  the  Bushmen.  In  some  particulars  they 
resemble  the  Hottentots  very  closely.  In  stature 
the  Bushmen  average  about  4  feet  8  inches.  They 
are  hunters  and  depend  largely  on  the  bow  and 
arrow,  sometimes  making  use  of  the  poisoned  arrow. 
They  make  their  clothing  out  of  the  skins  of  wild 
animals.  Their  dwelling-places  are  in  caves,  or  in 
rudely  constructed  abodes  made  by  bending  the 
foliage  of  the  bushes  into  a  sort  of  nest,  for  which 
reason  they  have  received  the  appellation  of  Bush- 
men. According  to  Reclus,  however,  in  the  terri- 
tory occupied  by  these  people  numerous  woody 
plants  from  4  to  8  feet  in  height  abound,  having  a 
dull  green  or  bluish  foliage.  This  is  the  so-called 
bush  country  of  the  English  and  the  inhabitants 
have  hence  been  designated  as  Bushmen.  They 
call  themselves  Khui.  By  the  Hottentots  they  are 
called  San. 

The  earliest  account  of  the  Bushmen  was  given 
by  Simon  van  der  Stell,  the  Dutch  governor  of  the 
Colony,  in  the  year  1685.  In  his  narrative  he  gives 
a  description  of  a  people  that  w^ould  apparently 
apply  to  the  Bushmen  of  the  present  time.  "They 
carried,"  says  that  writer,  according  to  Prichard, 
''  bows  and  arrows  and  assagays,  possessed  no  cattle, 
and  subsisted  on  wild  honey  and  the  game  which 
they  shot.  Their  abodes,  or  rather  places  of  wan- 
dering, were  along  a  stream  which  flowed  from  the 
Gricqua  Mountains,  falling  into  the  Olifant  River." 

The  Bushmen  have  a  yellowish  complexion,  whicli 
has  in  some  instances  been  compared  to  that  of  the 


74  THE    BUSHMEN. 

Mongolian.  They  also  resemble  them  in  certain 
other  respects,  such  as  the  small  black  eyes,  the 
broad  and  prominent  cheek  bones,  the  contour  of 
the  mouth  and  chin,  and  the  regular  and  white 
teeth.  They  differ  from  the  Mongolian  in  having  a 
dolichocephalic  skull,  and  a  forehead  which  bulges 
out,  instead  of  the  brachycephalic  skull  and  reced- 
ing forehead  of  the  Asiatics.  While  the  cranial 
capacity  is  below  the  average,  the  general  develop- 
ment does  not  indicate  any  lack  of  intelligence. 

One  of  the  curious  physical  characteristics  of  the 
Bushmen  is  the  great  number  of  wrinkles  covering 
the  whole  body,  the  skin  apparently  being  too  large 
for  the  frame;  this  condition  is  corrected,  however, 
under  a  more  liberal  diet.  Like  the  Hottentot,  the 
beard  is  scanty,  and  the  body  is  almost  entirely 
hairless. 

The  Bushmen  represent  a  people  that  are  degen- 
erating. They  seem  to  have  no  social  organization. 
They  wander  around  in  small  bands  without  any 
regular  chief,  and  family  ties  are  very  loose.  In 
some  respects,  however,  the  Bushmen  are  superior 
to  the  neighboring  tribes,  as  their  rock  drawings 
show  a  considerable  degree  of  intelligence,  and  their 
folklore  is  quite  extensive.  They  have  been  greatly 
persecuted  by  the  other  native  tribes,  as  well  as  by 
the  Dutch  Boers,  who  have  gone  so  far  as  to  deny 
that  they  possessed  articulate  speech,  and  under 
such  environment  it  is  probable  that  they  will  not 
be  able  to  survive  long. 

The  ethnic  relationship  existing  between  the 
Hottentots  and  the  Bushmen  is  not  clearly  under- 


THE    TRUE    NEGRO.  75 

Stood  ;  there  certainly  seems  to  be,  however,  some 
relationship  between  them,  but  probably  not  a  very 
close  one. 

The  true  negroes  form  a  majority  of  the  popula- 
tion of  Africa,  but  in  reality  occupy  less  than  half  of 
the  land.  Their  habitat  being  from  the  Sahara 
southward  to  the  region  inhabited  by  the  Hotten- 
tots and  the  Bushmen,  and  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Indian  Ocean.  Adjoining  regions  are  occupied  by 
tribes  presenting  distinct  variations  from  the  true 
negro  type. 

Of  the  various  classifications  of  the  negro  peoples 
none  have  been  generally  accepted  by  ethnologists. 
Conflicting  and  inaccurate  names  of  tribes  have 
been  given  by  various  travelers,  so  that  at  present 
anything  like  a  systematic  arrangement  is  almost 
impossible. 

By  some  physiologists  it  is  alleged  that  the  blood 
of  the  negro  is  thicker  and  has  fewer  red  corpuscles 
than  are  found  in  the  blood  of  the  members  of  the 
white  race.  The  temperament  is  not  so  sensitive  as 
that  of  the  white  race.  They  do  not  suffer  from 
surgical  operations  to  the  extent  that  Europeans 
do.  The  negroes  seem  to  possess  some  immunity 
to  typhoid  and  other  fevers,  cancer,  croup  and  den- 
tal caries.  They  are  especially  susceptible  to  disease 
of  the  pulmonary  system  and,  also,  to  bilious  and 
cutaneous  diseases. 

It  was  a  mistake  of  the  earlier  ethnologists  to  as- 
sociate with  the  negro  everything  that  was  brutal 
and  beastlike.  His  capacity  for  improvement  was 
doubted,  and  even  his  position  as  man  was  some- 
times questioned. 


y(i  THE    NEGRO    PEOPLES. 

From  a  linguistic  standpoint  the  negroes  are 
divided  into  two  groups,  the  Soudanese  and  the 
Bantuas. 

The  Soudanese,  as  the  name  signifies,  inhabit  the 
region  known  as  the  Soudan,  which  stretches  south 
from  the  Sahara,  from  the  Atlantic  Ocean  to  the 
Red  Sea.  From  the  earliest  times  this  region  has 
been  recognized  as  the  real  home  of  the  true 
negroes.  In  this  territory  there  have  been  found 
many  individuals  and  even  tribes  that  are  said  to  be 
almost  black  in  color.  From  this  hue  all  grada- 
tions in  the  complexion  of  the  skin  occur,  som.e  of 
the  lighter  shades  being  of  a  mulatto  color. 

The  nations  of  this  region  are  divided  into  many 
different  tribes,  and  are  known  by  various  names. 
They  have  been  grouped  mainly  by  the  languages 
spoken. 

Between  the  Gambia  and  the  Senegal  Rivers  dwell 
the  Wolofs,  one  of  the  finest  tribes  of  the  negro 
race.  The  significance  of  the  name  Wolof  has  oc- 
casioned some  discussion,  which  is  quite  interesting, 
as  there  is  some  difference  of  opinion  as  to  whether 
it  means  ''  Talkers  "  or  "  Blacks."  In  color  they  are 
certainly  very  dark,  and  have  been  referred  to  as  the 
"blackest  of  the  black."  In  the  Cape  Verde  region 
are  the  Severs.  In  the  coast  region  are  also  found 
the  Baiiiiins.  The  Ma7idingoes,  which  are  an  im- 
portant negro  nation,  inhabit  the  region  from 
upper  Guinea  on  the  south  to  Timbuctoo ;  this  is 
the  most  important  nation  of  the  Western  Soudan, 
and  has  many  branches.  It  is  extremely  difficult  to 
decide  just  what  tribes  should  be  considered  as  be- 


THE    NEGRO    PEOPLES.  ^J 

longing  to  this  group,  as  the  alleged  members  pre- 
sent all  variations  from  the  true  negro  to  the 
negroid.  The  Kassonke,  Jallouke,  Soninke,  Vet, 
Bainbai'a  and  others  are  generally  considered  to 
belong  to  them. 

Along  the  course  of  the  Niger  River  dwell  many 
petty  kingdoms,  and  also  some  of  considerable 
magnitude.  Sansandig  is  3aid  by  Brinton  to  have  a 
population  of  30,000  inhabitants,  and  Timbuctoo, 
20,000.  These  natives  are  mostly  hunters  and  war- 
riors, but  give,  however,  considerable  attention  to 
agriculture,  and  through  intercourse  with  the 
Arabs,  carry  on  considerable  commerce.  They 
have  largely  accepted  the  Mohammedan  religion. 

The  natives  of  Guinea  are  mostly  savages ;  they 
have  greatly  deteriorated,  and  all  attempts  to  civi- 
lize them  up  to  the  present  time  seem  to  have 
failed.  This  is  well  illustrated  by  the  history  of 
the  people  of  the  Republic  of  Liberia,  who  have 
not  only  failed  to  make  any  impression  towards 
civilizing  the  aboriginal  inhabitants,  but  who  them- 
selves are  rapidly,  from  all  accounts,  relapsing  into 
barbarism. 

The  many  natives  of  this  region  are  comprised  in 
many  small  groups,  each  with  its  own  distinctive 
name,  which,  as  a  rule,  has  no  ethnic  value,  and 
which  is  subject  to  variation,  owing  to  admixture 
with  other  groups  of  peoples. 

In  pre-]\lohammedan  times  many  of  these  natives 
were  devil  worshipers,  and  where  these  views  still 
prevail  the  natives  assemble  at  some  spot  held  in 
special  veneration  and  make  an  animal  sacrifice  to 
appease  the  evil  spirit. 


78  THE    NEGRO    PEOPLES. 

Along  the  Beneri  River  dwell  the  Bolo,  Yaco  and 
Mistri  tribes.  Living  along  the  Shari  River  are  the 
Bashirjui.  In  the  region  of  Lake  Tchad  are  many 
different  tribes,  among  which  are  the  Mongti,  the 
Yedina  and  the  Ktiri.  Near  Kordofan  are  the 
Nubas;  dwelling  on  both  sides  of  the  Nile,  between 
the  first  and  second  cataracts,  are  the  Barabras. 
Along  the  Welle  are  the  Mombtithc  and  the  Zan- 
dah,  both  of  which  are  cannibals. 

Between  the  Niger  and  the  Bornon  rivers  the 
Hausa  language  is  spoken  which  in  its  words  ex- 
pressing number  shows  some  relationship  to  the 
ancient  Egyptian. 

There  are  many  other  tribes  of  more  or  less  im- 
portance scattered  at  various  points  throughout  the 
Soudan,  but  it  seems  hardly  advisable  to  mention 
more  of  them  here.  Whenever  we  approach  the 
border  line  of  the  Soudan  in  any  direction,  influ- 
ences from  the  other  races  become  clearly  recog- 
nized in  the  physical  characters  of  the  negro,  plainly 
showing  that  the  contact  with  other  peoples  has 
resulted  in  modifying  the  coal-black  color  of  the 
skin  to  a  perceptibly  lighter  hue. 

The  Bantu  peoples,  w^hile  mainly  negro  in  char- 
acter, present  certain  characteristics  which  make 
them  differ  from  the  true  negro  type,  and  are  hence 
referred  to  as  negroids. 

These  Bantu  negroids  are  usually  of  a  lighter 
color  than  the  negro,  although  all  intermediate  hues 
are  found  among  them ;  they  have  a  larger  cranial 
capacity  and  are  not  so  prognathic.  They  are  more 
intelligent  than  the  pure  negro,  and  are  more  civi- 


THE    XEGRO    PEOPLES.  79 

ilized.  The  Bantu  negroids  are  a  mixed  people, 
the  ethnic  elements  entering  into  their  composition 
being,  on  the  one  hand,  largely  negro,  and,  on  the 
other,  to  a  lesser  extent,  Semitic  and  Hamitic  influ- 
ences. 

They  inhabit  many  portions  of  Africa  south  of  the 
equator,  extending  to  the  territory  occupied  by  the 
Hottentots  and  the  Bushmen. 

One  of  the  most  important  divisions  of  the  Bantu 
group  are  the  ZhIks,  which  name  is  now  generally 
applied  to  an  aggregation  of  tribes  or  clans  all  con- 
spicuous for  their  physical  and  intellectual  develop- 
ment. The  Zulu  men  are  brave  warriors,  and  enjoy 
field  sports.  Polygamy  has  been  practised  by  them 
from  time  immemorial,  and  the  marriage  with  the 
twentieth  wife  is  considered  as  binding  as  where 
monogamy  prevails.  As  a  people,  the  Zulus  thus 
far  seem  to  have  avoided  the  evils  of  drunkenness 
and  crime,  and  their  morality  is  considered  excep- 
tional. They  pursue  mainly  a  pastoral  life,  and 
their  art  is  limited  to  the  making  of  iron  imple- 
ments, pottery  and  various  ornaments  of  copper, 
ivory,  horn  and  wood.  In  the  region  of  the  Cam- 
eroons  are  the  Bayou,  the  Basa,  the  Abo  and  the 
Barombi  peoples. 

Separated  from  the  Zulus  by  the  Drakensberg 
Mountains  are  the  Bcchiiatia,  who  are  probably 
related  to  the  Hottentots ;  they  are  divided  into  the 
Eastern  Bechuana  and  the  Western  Bechuana. 
North  of  these  people,  in  the  upper  basin  of  the 
Zambesi  River,  dwell  the  Barotsc,  a  people  who 
are  considered  to  be  related  to  the  Zulus. 


80  THE    NEGRO    PEOPLES. 

In  the  southeastern  region  are  Kaffirs;  they  are 
a  people  of  magnificent  physical  development  and 
are  to  an  extent  agricultural  in  their  habits,  al- 
though in  the  main  they  are  warlike  and  many  of 
them  are  said  to  be  cannibals.  They  do  not  form 
a  united  group  of  people,  but  are  split  up  into  a 
number  of  tribes,  and  the  color  of  their  skin  varies 
from  a  light  brown  to  black.  The  Kafirs  practice 
polygamy,  but  the  wives  are  of  unequal  rank. 
They  are  a  superstitious  people  and  make  sacrifices 
to  appease  evil  spirits  on  every  hand.  They  con- 
sider that  snakes  represent  ancestral  forms  and  con- 
sequently treat  them  with  considerable  respect. 
They  believe  most  sincerely  in  witchcraft,  and  the 
witch-doctor  of  the  tribe  is  a  man  of  great  import- 
ance. 

They  also  possess  large  herds  of  cattle,  which 
comprise  their  main  wealth,  and  which  constitute 
what  might  be  termed  their  currency.  Even  their 
wives  are  said  to  be  measured  by  this  medium  of 
exchange,  an  ''average"  wife  being  said  to  be  worth 
eight  cows. 

The  Congo  region  is  occupied  largely  by  these 
Bantu  tribes,  which  linguistically  are  related,  but  in 
physical  characteristics  present  considerable  varia- 
tion and  diiTer  from  the  Negroes  proper  in  the 
color,  features,  shape  of  the  skull,  and  in  the  gen- 
eral development  of  their  physique,  although  all 
intermediate  gradations  may  at  times  be  observed. 
From  forty  to  fifty  distinct  idioms  of  Bantu  speech 
in  this  region  have  been  recognized,  but  as  yet 
sufficient  material  has  not  been  collected  to  afford 


THE    NEGRO    PEOPLES.  8l 

anything  like  a  satisfactory  classification  of  the 
Bantu  peoples  of  this  region;  the  Nyamezi  dwell 
to  the  east  and  the  Rua  to  the  west  of  Tanganyika. 
The  Reggas  occupy  portions  of  the  country  between 
the  Congo  and  Lake  Mutes  Nzige,  and  the  Da-Lolo 
are  found  along  the  banks  of  the  Congo  where  it 
makes  its  great  curve.  Other  peoples  inhabiting 
this  region  are  the  Ba-Ngala,  the  Bu-Baiighi,  the 
Wa-Buma,  and  the  Ba-Frot  more  generally  known 
as  the  Congolese. 

The  territory  of  the  Zambesi,  and  the  region  of 
Lakes  Tanganyika  and  Victoria  Nyanza  is  also 
largely  populated  by  Bantu  tribes. 

The  languages  spoken  by  these  Bantu  negroids 
have  a  large  number  of  roots  in  common,  which  are 
modified  into  words  by  peculiar  defining  prefixes. 

Owing  largely  to  the  savage  wars  that  the 
African  populations  have  been  continually  waging 
since  the  country  was  first  known  to  Europeans,  the 
ethnic  relationships  of  the  different  peoples  have 
been  greatly  obscured,  and  attempts  at  accurate 
classification  seem  wellnigh  hopeless  of  yielding 
satisfactory  results.  Constant  intermingling  of  the 
dift'erent  tribes  has  occurred,  and  the  ethnologist 
is  compelled  of  necessity  to  depend  upon  linguistic 
classifications  in  his  attempts  to  obtain  order  out 
of  this  chaotic  condition. 

Among  both  the  Negro  and  the  Bantu  peoples 
the  village  is  the  political  unit;  it  is  generally  gov- 
erned by  a  chief,  who  is  advised  by  a  council  of  the 
older  or  most  able  men  of  the  village.  Ruling  over 
several  of  these  villages  is  another  chief  or  king, 
6 


82  THE    NEGRO    CHARACTER. 

who  stands  much  higher  in  authority.  The  king 
generally  dwells  in  the  largest  of  the  villages  that 
come  under  his  jurisdiction.  In  the  centre  of  each 
village  there  is  usually  a  council  house,  where  the 
people  of  the  village  congregate  on  various  occa- 
sions. Each  master  of  a  household  usually  has  as 
many  houses  or  huts  as  he  possesses  wives. 

The  true  negro  is  of  a  cheerful  disposition,  and 
so  long  as  his  immediate  necessities  are  provided 
for  is  not  easily  depressed.  Negro  children  are  fre- 
quently quite  bright  and  intelligent,  and  until  the 
age  of  twelve  or  fourteen  years  is  reached,  learn 
quite  readily;  but  at  this  time  a  change  usually 
occurs,  progress  apparently  ceases,  the  intellect 
seems  to  become  cloudy  and  the  characteristic  in- 
dolent nature  of  the  negro  manifests  itself.  This 
may  perhaps  be  explained  by  the  fact  that  the 
cranial  sutures  in  the  negro  skull  close,  and  con- 
sequently retard  brain  development,  at  an  earlier 
period  than  in  the  White  race.  So  long  as  the 
negro  is  aided  and  encouraged  by  the  white  man, 
he  seems  to  succeed,  but  when  he  loses  this  assist- 
ance he  gradually  relapses  towards  his  primitive 
condition,  as  he  has  done  in  Liberia  and  Hayti. 

Without  the  aid  of  other  races  no  negro  people 
have  ever  reduced  their  language  to  a  written  form. 

Architecture  was  not  in  the  slightest  manner  de- 
veloped by  any  pure  negro  people;  and  they  did 
not,  except  when  brought  under  other  influences, 
build  even  walls  of  stone.  In  the  working  of  iron 
and  copper  they  have  shown  some  ability,  as  the 
art  of  smelting  iron  ore  and  making  it  into  imple- 


NEGRO    SLAVERY.  83 

ments  and  weapons  is  quite  generally  understood 
by  the  native  tribes  of  the  African  continent.  In 
all  portions  of  this  country  travellers  have  found 
the  natives  in  the  so-called  iron  age.  By  means  of 
their  rudely  constructed  bellows  they  are  said  to  be 
able  to  raise  quite  an  intense  heat,  and  the  metal 
smelted  is  sometimes  of  quite  a  fine  quality,  so  that 
many  of  the  natives  prefer  their  own  iron  utensils 
rather  than  those  of  foreign  make. 

Some  ethnologists  have  gone  so  far  as  to  con- 
sider that  the  knowledge  of  iron-working  was  intro- 
duced into  Europe  from  Africa  owing  to  the  ability 
of  the  natives  in  this  particular.  There  is,  however, 
no  evidence  to  offer  in  support  of  this  contention, 
and  therefore  it  cannot  be  considered  true. 

In  the  arts  of  weaving,  pottery-making  and  agri- 
culture they  possess  considerable  knowledge  and 
skill. 

From  early  times  negro  slavery  has  existed ;  the 
Carthaginians  probably  brought  slaves  from  North 
Africa,  and  for  a  long  time  slave  trade  has  been 
carried  on  by  the  Arabs. 

The  discovery  of  America  gave  impetus  to  slavery, 
and  nearly  all  European  countries  afforded  to  it  legal 
recognition.  Between  the  years  1680  and  1700, 
England  exported  at  least  300,000  slaves  from  Africa, 
and  between  the  years  1700  and  1786,  imported  into 
Jamaica  over  600,000  slaves.  In  the  year  1808, 
slave  trade  was  declared  illegal  by  Great  Britain, 
and  other  nations  gradually  followed  the  same 
course.  France  emancipated  its  negroes  in  the 
year  1848.  In  Brazil,  slavery  existed  until  the  year 
1888. 


84  NEGRO    POPULATION. 

In  the  year  i860,  according  the  census,  there  were 
in  the  United  States  3,953,760  slaves,  and  it  was 
not  until  after  a  most  cruel  war  that  slavery  ceased 
to  exist  here. 

As  a  result  of  this  pernicious  system  of  human 
slavery,  we  now  have  in  the  United  States  about 
9,000,000  negroes;  they  are  no  longer  slaves,  but 
are  now  given  the  same  legal  status  as  the  whites. 
The  equality  of  the  two  races  has  been  established 
on  paper,  but  to  the  anthropologist  it  is  only  on 
paper  that  this  equality  exists.  Measured  by  all 
anthropological  criteria,  the  black  is  greatly  the 
inferior  of  the  white,  and,  according  to  the  principle 
of  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  the  negro  must  inevit- 
ably succumb  in  the  struggle  for  existence  if  he  is 
compelled  to  endeavor  to  maintain  a  position  equal 
with  that  of  the  whites  in  a  civilization  for  which  he 
is  not  prepared. 


CHAPTER   III. 

THE    YELLOW    (aSIAn)    RACE. 

Contents. — The  physical  characteristics  of  the  race.  The  orig- 
inal home  of  the  race  and  its  distribution.  The  Sinitic  and 
Sibiric  branches.  The  Chinese,  their  culture,  their  language 
and  their  religion.  The  Thibetans.  The  Indo-Chinese  or  the 
Thibeto-Indo-Chinese.  The  Tunguses.  The  Kalmucks.  The 
Tartars,  The  Turks.  The  Finns.  The  Lapps,  or  Lapland- 
ers. The  Chukchis.  The  Namollos.  The  Kamschatkans. 
The  Giliaks.  The  Aleutians.  The  Ainos.  The  Japanese, 
their  physical  characteristics,  their  origin  and  their  culture. 

THE  characteristic  presented  by  the  Yellow  or 
Mongolian  race,  in  which  it  differs  mainly 
from  the  other  races  of  mankind,  is  the  color  of 
the  skin,  which  is  of  a  yellowish  tint,  blending  at 
times  to  an  olive  shade;  the  hair  is  usually  black, 
coarse  and  of  a  dull  lustre,  and  in  outline  on  trans- 
verse section,  is  circular;  the  beard  is  scanty  or 
absent,  the  mustache  being  usually  proportionally 
more  developed.  The  skull  generally  exhibits  the 
meso-  or  brachycephalic  type;  the  cheek  bones  are 
prominent;  the  eyes  are  of  the  so-called  oblique 
variety;  the  nose  is  small  and  concave;  and,  on  the 
whole,  the  features  presented  by  the  face  may  be 
described  as  being  broad.  These  characteristics  are 
also  presented  in  the  main  by  the  Red  race,  which 
tends  to  make  the  argument  in  favor  of  the  ]\lon- 
golian  origin  of  the  American  aborigines  very 
strong.  Asia  is  considered  by  nearly  all  ethnolo- 
gists to  be  the  original  home  of  the  Yellow  race. 

(85) 


S6  THE   DIVISIONS    OF   THE   YELLOW    RACE. 

The  Yellow  race,  from  their  original  home,  at 
times  considerably  extended  their  geographical  dis- 
tribution. Evidence  of  their  presence  in  Mesopo- 
tamia has  been  found,  and,  while  they  penetrated 
into  Europe,  they  did  not,  so  far  as  is  known,  ever 
reach  Africa.  Portions  of  the  race  helped  to  furnish 
the  populations  of  Japan,  Malaysia,  Australasia 
and  Polynesia.  That  they  reached  the  continent 
of  America  probably  by  way  of  Behring  Strait  can- 
not well  be  doubted,  as  travel  to  and  fro  by  the 
inhabitants  of  the  two  continents  at  this  point  has 
occurred  as  long  as  we  have  had  any  knowledge  of 
these  regions. 

The  Yellow  race  may  be  divided  into  two 
branches,  conforming  in  a  general  manner  to  their 
geographical  distribution.  The  first  of  these  has 
been  designated  by  Brinton  to  be  the  Sinitic,  which 
includes  the  people  of  China  and  Farther  India; 
and  the  other  the  Sibiric,  the  geographical  distri- 
bution of  which  is  embraced  in  the  region  north  of 
the  Altai  Mountains  and  the  Caspian  and  Black 
Seas,  and  extending  from  the  Pacific  to  the  Atlantic 
Ocean. 

The  first  group  included  in  the  Sinitic  branch  are 
the  Chinese,  which,  while  a  mixed  people,  constitute 
one  of  the  most  definite  varieties  of  mankind.  In 
the  various  provinces,  from  Canton  to  the  Great 
Wall,  a  large  number  of  types  are  found  which 
present,  in  some  instances,  marked  contrasts  to  each 
other.  The  general  characteristic  which  runs 
through  all  is  their  common  culture  rather  than 
any  particular  racial  character. 


THE    CULTURE    OF    THE    CHINESE.  87 

In  the  evolution  of  societ}^  the  people  of  China 
have  passed  through  essentially  the  same  phases  of 
development  as  the  people  of  Europe.  China  has 
had  its  paleolithic  and  neolithic  stone  ages.  The 
western  archaeologists  consider  that  weapons  were 
first  made  of  wood,  next  of  stone,  and  finally  of 
metal.  While  the  Chinese  have  thus  passed  through 
many  of  the  successive  stages  of  development  that 
the  White  race  has,  this  development  is  usually 
arrested  and  falls  far  short  of  the  perfection  that  is 
accomplished  by  the  White  race. 

The  culture  of  the  Chinese,  while  old,  is  without 
doubt  not  as  ancient  as  it  has  been  reputed  to  be, 
although  some  four  thousand  years  ago  while  the 
Europeans  were  still  barbarians  China  had  its  liter- 
ature and  written  history.  The  records  preserved  by 
the  Chinese  in  their  annals  constitute  one  of  the 
most  important  and  complete  histories  ever  made  by 
any  people;  they  treat  largely  of  political  events  and 
record  observations  relating  to  natural  phenomena. 
They  were  familiar  with  the  power  of  the  magnet  to 
point  to  the  north  as  early  as  121  A.  D.,  but  utilized 
this  knowledge  by  applying  it  to  toys  instead  of  to 
navigation.  They  probably  invented  movable  type 
as  early  as  the  eleventh  century,  but  never  utilized 
this  knowledge,  so  far  as  is  known,  for  the  purpose 
of  printing.  They  made  gunpowder  long  before 
the  Europeans,  but  used  it  mainly  for  the  manufac- 
ture of  fire-crackers.  From  remote  periods  in  their 
history  they  have  domesticated  cattle,  but,  it  is  main- 
tained, do  not  milk  their  cows.  The  Chinese  people 
always  seem  to  have  just  fallen  short  of  accomplish- 


88  THE    LANGUAGE    OF   THE    CHINESE. 

ing  great  ends.  Had  they  utilized  the  powers  they 
possessed  in  the  compass  and  in  gunpowder  their 
present  status  among  the  nations  of  the  world  would 
probably  have  been  different  from  what  it  is  to-day. 
They  have  originality,  but  the  capacity  for  develop- 
ment seems  to  be  lacking,  and,  for  this  reason,  their 
ability  to  succeed  has  been  correspondingly  dimin- 
ished. This  is  considered  by  anthropologists  to  be 
due  probably  to  arrested  development.  The  China- 
man may  be  said  to  be  pre-eminently  practical,  de- 
void almost  entirely  of  theory;  and  without  theory 
progress  is  wellnigh  impossible. 

The  Chinese  still  retain  a  primitive  form  of 
speech.  Their  dialects  comprise  a  small  number  of 
monosyllabic  roots.  From  these  roots  thousands 
of  meanings  are  evolved  by  the  different  tones  in 
which  the  root  words  are  pronounced.  The  natives 
of  the  different  provinces  are  unable  to  communicate 
orally  together,  but  by  their  ideographic  system  of 
writing  they  are  able  to  understand  one  another. 
This  system  of  writing  is  also  understood  in  Korea, 
Japan,  Annam  and  Siam. 

The  religion  of  the  Chinese  consisted  originally 
in  the  worship  of  the  objects  and  forces  of  nature. 
All  natural  phenomena  were  supposed  to  be  the  re- 
sult of  the  labors  of  good  or  evil  spirits,  and  to 
these  they  offered  up  prayer  and  sacrifice.  Their 
supreme  diety  was  Tien,  or  Heaven ;  Ti,  or  Earth, 
constituted  another  deity,  and  from  the  union  of 
these  two  all  nature  resulted.  The  dominating  re- 
ligions of  China  at  the  present  time  are  those  of  the 
Buddhists,  Taoists  and  the  followers  of  Confucius. 


CONFUCIUS.  89 

They  give  very  little  attention  to  the  tenets  of  these 
different  religious  systems,  the  same  individual  fre- 
quently accepting  all,  as  does  the  Emperor. 

The  great  philosopher,  Confucius,  who  lived  from 
551  B.  C.  to  479  B.  C,  has  always  been  appreciated 
by  the  better  classes  in  China.  Confucianism  has 
frequently  been  called  a  system  of  morality  without 
religion.  He  devoted  his  teaching  to  the  practical 
side  of  life  and  excluded  almost  altogether  the 
supernatural  element;  his  position  on  many  ques- 
tions was  that  of  the  agnostic.  ''How,"  he  asks, 
''should  I  pretend  to  know  anything  about  heaven 
since  it  is  so  difficult  to  clearly  understand  what 
takes  place  on  earth?  You  have  not  yet  learned  to 
live  and  you  already  rave  about  what  may  happen  to 
you  after  death,"  said  he.  He  dwelt  on  the  duties 
of  man  to  man,  to  his  superiors,  and  to  the  State. 
The  influences  wielded  by  the  teachings  of  Confucius 
in  China  have  been  very  great;  he  has  there  been 
recognized  as  the  "teacher  of  the  nation." 

Buddhism  was  introduced  into  China  about  200 
B.  C,  and  about  300  years  later  it  received  the  offi- 
cial recognition  of  the  Emperor.  It  has  nominally 
since  become  the  national  religion,  and  is  accepted 
in  a  general  way  by  the  majority  of  the  population. 
The  real  significance  of  this  system  is,  however,  but 
poorly  understood  by  the  Chinese. 

The  Mohammedans  have  considerable  influence 
in  China,  it  having  been  estimated,  according  to 
Reclus,  that  at  present  there  are  at  least  20,000,000 
of  that  faith. 

The  Chinese  people  may  be  said  to  be,  as  a  rule. 


90  THE    CUSTOMS    OF    THE    CHINESE. 

good-natured,  reserved  and  courteous,  and  in  cer- 
tain respects  seem  to  possess  some  very  commend- 
able qualities.  It  is  said  that  drunkards  are  but 
rarely  seen  on  their  streets,  and  exhibitions  of  vio- 
lence are  exceptional.  In  the  school-room  the  chil- 
dren show  great  obedience  to  their  teacher  and 
apply  themselves  industriously  to  their  studies. 
They  are,  to  an  extent,  bright  and  cheerful,  but, 
nevertheless,  possess  a  seriousness  beyond  their 
years.  They  exhibit  an  aspect  of  dignity  which  is 
preserved  throughout  life.  This  is  also  a  character- 
istic feature  of  the  American  Indian.  The  family 
group  constitutes  the  most  important  feature  of 
Chinese  society.  At  one  time  the  whole  nation  was 
known  as  the  ''hundred  families."  Their  moral 
system  is  based  mainly  on  the  respect  of  the  chil- 
dren to  their  parents,  especially  the  father.  The 
merits  of  the  individual  occupy  a  secondary  position 
to  the  merits  of  the  family,  and,  as  a  rule,  it  is  the 
family  alone  that  exerts  any  political  power.  It  is, 
however,  the  father  that  expresses  the  sentiments 
of  the  family;  whatever  his  opinion  is,  is  expected 
to  be  accepted  by  his  family  as  final  and  correct. 
He  receives  honor  and  credit  for  the  virtues  of  the 
family,  but  is  also  held  responsible  for  its  faults. 
The  heroic  acts  of  the  children  ennoble  the  family 
and  the  entire  line  of  ancestry;  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  any  crimes  committed  bring  disgrace  upon 
the  entire  family  and  their  whole  ancestral  line. 

Their  funeral  ceremonies  are  quite  elaborate,  and 
the  family,  especially  the  children,  are  expected  to 
give   public   exhibition   of   their   grief.     Incense   is 


THE    CUSTOMS    OF   THE    CHINESE.  9I 

burnt  in  memory  of  the  dead,  and  he  is  suppHed 
with  fictitious  paper  money  and  also  clothes,  horses 
and  servants,  also  made  of  paper,  and  whatever  else 
is  supposed  to  be  required  by  the  departed  in  the 
other  world.  During  the  period  of  mourning, 
which  lasts  for  three  years,  the  mourners  do  not 
attend  public  gatherings,  and  are  said  to  abstain 
from  meat  and  wine.  When  possible,  the  dead  are 
finally  deposited  in  the  places  of  their  nativity.  In 
the  month  of  May  of  each  year  the  graves  are  visited 
and  offerings  of  various  kinds,  as  fruits  and  flowers, 
are  made.  In  these  ceremonies  age  is  always  given 
precedence  over  rank.  When  children,  bachelors 
and  women  die,  the  ceremonies  are  much  less  elab- 
orate. The  bodies  of  infants  among  the  poorer 
classes  are  frequently  left  along  the  banks  of  streams. 
Infanticide,  especially  of  female  children,  is,  to  some 
extent,  practiced  among  the  poor. 

The  women  occupy  a  very  inferior  position  in 
Chinese  society,  and  among  them  artificial  deformity 
of  the  feet  is  practiced.  At  the  age  of  about  five  or 
six  years  the  feet  are  bound  up  in  such  a  manner 
that  growth  is  materially  interfered  with  and  con- 
siderable deformity  is  the  result,  which  impairs  the 
individual  for  life.  This  deformity  is  considered  in 
Chinese  society  to  be  a  special  mark  of  distinction. 

The  wife  is  practically  the  slave  of  her  husband, 
and  absolute  submission  to  his  will  is  required. 
The  husband  may  select  his  concubines  and  the 
wife  is  compelled  to  receive  them.  The  right  of 
divorce  is  limited  to  the  husband,  who  may  dismiss 
his  wife  at  will,  or  if   he  so  desires  may  sell  her. 


92  THE   THIBETANS. 

Marriage  is  performed  with  various  and  elaborate 
ceremonies. 

Numerous  brotherhoods,  or  secret  societies,  exist 
among  the  Chinese,  and  exercise  great  influence; 
and  from  them  the  various  insurrections  usually 
originate.  One  of  the  most  important  of  these 
societies  is  that  of  the  Taipings,  which  waged  such 
a  formidable  rebellion  from  the  years  185 1  to  1865, 
and  which,  had  it  been  successful,  would  have  occu- 
pied an  important  position  in  the  history  of  China. 

The  natives  of  the  great  Thibetan  plateau  and 
the  adjoining  regions  are  known  as  the  Thibetans, 
and  constitute  the  next  group  of  the  Sinitic  branch 
of  the  Yellow  race. 

The  greater  portion  of  Thibet  still  remains  un- 
explored. The  Thibetans  possess  the  characteristic 
Mongolic  physical  type.  They  are  well  spoken  of 
by  travellers,  who  consider  them  a  quiet,  frank  and 
dignified  people.  They  are  physically  well  developed 
and  are  brave;  they  are  fond  of  music  and  dancing, 
but  lack  energy  and  enterprise.  The  Thibetans 
have  for  a  long  time  been  in  their  present  state  of 
civilization.  In  some  localities  many  of  the  natives 
are  able  to  read  and  write,  and  books  are  said  to  be 
found  in  many  of  their  homes.  Their  language  in 
evolutionary  development  is  considered  to  have 
passed  that  of  the  Chinese;  their  dialects  are  numer- 
ous, and  greatly  differ  from  each  other  in  different 
portions  of  the  country. 

The  religion  of  the  Thibetans  is  Buddhism,  which 
was  early  introduced  among  them.  Many  monas- 
teries and  convents  have  been  built  in  various  por- 


THE    INDO-CHINESE.  93 

tions  of  the  country,  and  numerous  priests  find 
employment;  it  has  been  estimated  that  there  is  one 
monk  to  every  family. 

These  people  are  pastoral,  and  to  a  lesser  extent 
agricultural;  milk,  butter  and  barley  meal  consti- 
tute the  most  important  articles  of  food  among 
them. 

Polygamy  and  polyandry  are  practiced  in  Thibet, 
and  yet  from  the  testimony  of  travelers  it  seems 
that  matrimonial  difficulties  are  not  more  numerous 
here  than  in  other  countries.  In  Farther  India  and 
Cochin-China  the  natives  present  certain  character- 
istics, as  wavy  hair,  which  seem  to  indicate  a  mixed 
descent,  and  which  have  been  termed  the  Indo- 
Chinese  or  the  Thibeto-Indo-Chinese  subdivision. 
This  constitutes  the  last  group  of  the  Sinitic  branch. 
The  natives  of  Burma,  Siam,  Annam  and  Cochin- 
China  are  here  included. 

The  first  group  of  the  Sibiric  branch  are  the  Tun- 
gtises,  that  inhabit  portions  of  Siberia,  from  the  Sea 
of  Okhotsk  to  Jenissia  and  to  the  Arctic  Ocean.  It 
has  been  estimated  that  60,000  to  70,000  of  them 
inhabit  Siberia.  Some  of  them  have  adopted  Rus- 
sian ways;  but  most  of  them  are  hunters,  wandering 
through  the  forests,  sometimes  without  tents,  and 
obtaining  shelter  in  natural  caves  and  in  the  trunks 
of  trees.  They  are  good  woodsmen  and  their  keen- 
ness in  the  forest  is  excelled  by  probably  only  the 
North  American  Indians;  various  signs  and  marks 
totally  unintelligi])le  to  others  are  used  efifectually 
as  methods  of  communication  among  them.  These 
people  have  many  curious   traits,  as   for  example, 


94  THE    KALMUCKS. 

when  a  woman  is  confined  in  labor  she  immediately 
seeks  seclusion  in  the  forest,  and  alone  and  unaided 
she  there  gives  birth  to  her  child  even  though  she 
die.  The  new-born  infant  is  given  the  name  of  the 
first  stranger  that  crosses  a  burning  brand  at  the 
threshold.  The  dead  are  not  buried,  but  with  the 
head  pointing  west  are  placed  in  the  branches  of 
trees.  They  make  important  use  of  the  reindeer, 
using  its  fiesh  for  food,  the  skin  for  clothing,  and 
the  bones  for  various  implements.  The  Tunguses 
make  their  tents,  cradles  and  baskets  from  the  bark 
of  the  birch  tree,  and  travellers  describe  them  as 
possessing  marked  hospitality. 

The  Kalmucks  or  Western  Mongols  inhabit  the 
region  of  Zungaria,  around  Koko-nor  in  Northeast 
Thibet;  in  the  Ordus  region  of  the  Yellow  River  of 
China;  and  in  the  steppes  between  the  Don  and  the 
Volga  and  the  Caspian.  They  are  nomads,  and 
depend  mainly  on  the  raising  of  large  herds  of 
cattle.  Their  language  is  more  phonetic  than  that 
of  the  Eastern  Mongolian.  These  wandering  people 
are  good  horsemen,  and  some  of  them  breed  and 
break  in  camels;  they  are  a  tricky  people  and  resort 
to  fraud  and  theft  where  it  serves  their  purposes  to 
do  so. 

Their  villages  are  found  on  the  lonely  steppes  and 
their  habitations  are  made  of  tents  which  have  been 
described  by  M.  Vereschagnine  as  containing,  in 
much  confusion,  boxes,  lassoes,  saddles  and  other 
odds  and  ends.  A  rudely  constructed  hearth  serves 
as  a  place  for  them  to  build  their  fire.  In  the  sum- 
mer their  clothing  is  meagre,  and  during  their  cold 


THE    TARTARS.  95 

and  bleak  winters  they  remain  as  much  as  possible 
huddled  together  in  their  tents. 

The  Tartars  comprise  certain  tribes  of  mixed 
origin  inhabiting  Tartary,  Siberia  and  the  Russian 
Steppes.  The  word  Tartar  has  no  fixed  ethnologi- 
cal significance. 

The  modern  anthropologists  consider  that  the 
Turks  were  originally  members  of  the  Yellow  race, 
although  the  modern  Turk,  through  constant  inter- 
minglings  with  the  Semitic  peoples,  possesses  at  the 
present  time  many  of  the  characteristics  of  the 
White  race.  The  Turks  are,  in  general,  a  tall, 
robust  set  of  men,  with  a  tawny  or  swarthy  com- 
plexion, with  a  rough  but  frequently  handsome 
physiognomy.  They  include  a  large  number  of 
ethnic  groups  some  of  which  present  marked  dilTer- 
ences  as  to  life  and  language. 

The  most  important  group  of  people  belonging 
to  the  Turks  are  the  Osmanles  whose  descendants 
are  at  the  present  time  the  rulers  of  European  and 
Asiatic  Turkey.  The  tendency  to  nomadic  life  is 
still  strong  among  these  people.  Their  present 
physical  characteristics  present  many  affinities  to 
those  of  the  White  race,  but  modern  anthropolo- 
gists are  quite  agreed  that  originally  they  came  from 
the  Yellow  race. 

The  Yakuts  occupy  an  extensive  area  radiating 
from  Yakatak,  which  to  the  south  is  covered  with 
lofty  mountains,  and  to  the  west  and  north  extends 
a  plain  interspersed  with  thick  and  bushy  trees. 
The  region  is  well  supplied  with  numerous  streams 
which  are  navigated  by  the  natives  in  bark  canoes 


96      THE  TURCOMANS  AND  THE  NOGAIANS. 

and  boats  capable  of  holding  two  or  three  persons. 
For  traveling  over  the  land  the  reindeer  is  used. 
The  Yakuts  have  been  estimated  numerically  to 
comprise  about  two  hundred  thousand.  They  are  a 
stout,  well  built  people,  in  stature  being  of  about 
medium  height.  They  are  an  active,  intelligent, 
and  peaceful  people,  and  travelers  speak  highly  of 
their  hospitality.  They  are  fond  of  their  wine  and 
tobacco,  although  if  necessary  their  power  of  diet- 
etic endurance  is  great.  It  is  claimed  that  a  Yakut 
is  able  to  work  three  or  four  days  without  food  or 
drink;  to  the  writer,  however,  this  seems  to  be  a 
physiological  impossibility  and  absurd.  The  wealth 
of  a  Yakut  is  estimated  in  proportion  to  the  num- 
ber of  cattle  he  possesses. 

The  7 urco7nans  are  a  wandering  people,  inhabit- 
ing the  steppes  of  Turkestan,  Persia,  and  Afghan- 
istan, and  to  the  west  they  are  found  as  far  as 
Anatolia.  The  tribes  dwelling  in  the  latter  region 
have  in  the  main  many  of  the  physical  characteris- 
tics of  the  White  Race.  The  Turcomans  are  mostly 
Mohammedans.  They  are  inveterate  slave-dealers, 
and  in  spite  of  their  religious  inclinations  they  will 
traffic  in  the  followers  of  the  ''Prophet"  as  readily 
as  they  will  in  those  of  the  "unbelievers."  These 
people  are  also  very  much  devoted  to  the  raising 
and  racing  of  fine  horses. 

The  Nogaians  are  supposed  to  have  been  a  once- 
powerful  people  on  the  shores  of  the  Black  Sea,  but 
which  have  since  lost  power  and  prestige,  and  are 
now  variously  scattered  among  other  peoples  be- 
tween the  Volga  river  and  the  Caucasian  mountains. 


THE    KIRGHIZ    AND    THE    FINNS.  97 

many  of  them  still  remaining  have  been  described  as 
being  of  a  very  peaceful  disposition  and  much  de- 
voted to  the  pursuits  of  agriculture,  and  others  of 
them  are  said  to  be  still  nomadic  tribes. 

The  Kirghiz  are  a  nomadic  people  inhabiting  the 
frontiers  of  Russia  and  China,  and  are  found  at 
various  points  from  Lake  Baikal  to  the  boarders  of 
the  steppes  of  Siberia.  In  stature  these  people  are 
described  as  below  the  medium;  their  physiogomy  is 
that  of  the  yellow  race  in  general,  and  is  described 
by  European  travellers  as  being  ''ugly."  They  are 
much  devoted  to  their  horses  and  almost  always 
travel  on  horseback,  thoroughly  armed,  and  even 
prepared  for  war  or  for  the  chase.  At  the  town  of 
Shouraiahan  many  sedentary  Kirghiz  reside,  and 
this  serves  as  a  market-place  where  most  of  the 
buying  and  selling  occurs.  Others  are  the  Uighicrs, 
the  Uzbeks,  the  Kicnmks,  and  the  Karakalpaks,  all 
of  them  different  branches  of  the  Turkish  people; 
the  languages  spoken  by  them  show  remarkable 
uniformity. 

The  Finns  extend  from  the  Baltic  Sea  to  the  Obi. 
They  are  regarded  to  be  the  remains  of  a  people 
once  probably  much  more  numerous  than  at  the 
present  time.  They  are  of  Mongolic  origin,  but 
have  assimilated  to  a  great  extent  the  characteristics 
of  the  European.  They  are  mainly  hunters  and 
husbandmen.  A  number  of  different  branches  of 
the  Finnish  people  are  recognized,  among  them  be- 
ing the  Ostiaks,  dwelling  on  the  right  bank  of  the 
Obi,  and  the  Vogouls,  on  the  eastern  slopes  of  the 
Northern  Urals.  The  Finns  of  Siberia  comprise  in 
7 


98  THE    LAPPS. 

the  south  the  Teleouts,  the  Saga'is  and  the  Kachintz. 
They  devote  most  of  their  time  to  hunting,  fishing 
and  agriculture,  and  are  subjects  of  the  Russian 
Empire. 

In  Eastern  Russia  the  Basktrs,  the  Teptiars,  and 
the  Metscheriaks  belong  to  the  Finns.  The  first  of 
these  are  the  most  numerous,  they  speak  dialects 
which  vary  much  in  the  different  districts  inhabited 
by  them,  but  which,  in  the  main,  may  be  said  to  be 
composed  of  mainly  Turkish  and  Finnish  words 
with  some  Russian. 

The  Finns  inhabiting  the  region  of  the  Baltic  Sea 
have  long  been  under  the  rule  of  the  Teutonic  peo- 
ples, and  hence  their  characteristics  and  customs 
have  become  greatly  obscured ;  among  them  are 
the  Livo7iians,  the  Esthonians,  the  Ischorians,  the 
Kyrids,  the  Ytnes,  and  the  Quaines. 

The  Finns  of  Siberia  may  be  divided  into  two 
groups  :  one  occupying  the  south  and  the  other  the 
north.  In  the  former  group  belong  the  Teleouts, 
etc.  In  the  northern  group  belong  the  Ostiaks 
and  Vogoiils.  The  Ostiaks  dwell  mainly  along  the 
banks  of  the  Obi,  their  main  differentiating  physical 
characteristic  is  red  hair ;  in  habits  they  are  rather 
uncivilized,  idolatrous,  and  devoted  to  hunting  and 
fishing.  The  Vogouls  comprise  a  small  group 
dwelling  to  the  east  of  the  Oural,  there  has  been 
considerable  admixture  between  them  with  the 
Turks  and  Mongolians,  and  their  physical  charac- 
teristics have  thus  become  greatly  obscured. 

The  Lapps,  or  Laplanders,  are  a  strong,  hardy 
and  active  people,  although  small  in  stature.     They 


THE    LAPPS.  99 

have  a  brachycephalic  skull,  prominent  cheek  bones, 
and  the  characteristic  Mongol  face.  Their  com- 
plexion is  yellowish-brown,  and  their  hair  is  usually 
brown  or  of  a  chestnut  color.  This  color  of  the 
hair  seems  to  have  been  acquired  since  the  time  of 
Linnxus,  for  he  describes  it  as  being  black. 

The  Lapps  inhabit  various  portions  of  the  area 
bounded  on  the  north  by  the  Arctic  Ocean,  on  the 
northwest  by  the  Atlantic,  on  the  east  by  the  White 
Sea,  and  on  the  south  from  63°  to  66°  north  lati- 
tude. This  region  has  been  termed  Lapland,  but 
the  name  is  without  any  political  status. 

The  Lapps  are  usually  divided  into  two  groups, 
the  nomadic  Laplander  and  the  sedentary  Laplander. 
The  occupation  of  the  nomadic  Laplander  is  the 
taking  care  of  his  herd  of  reindeer.  This  useful 
animal  serves  them  in  many  ways ;  they  harness  the 
reindeer  to  their  sleds,  they  use  the  flesh  for  food, 
and  the  skin  for  the  making  of  their  clothes  and 
tents.  They  also  use  dogs  as  animals  of  draught. 
The  average  nomadic  Laplander  leads  a  miserable 
existence.  A  tent  serves  as  his  place  of  abode  all 
the  year  around.  In  the  centre  of  the  tent  he  has 
his  fire-place,  and  an  opening  in  the  top  permits 
the  escape  of  the  smoke.  The  skins  of  the  reindeer 
are  laid  around  the  fireplace  and  serve  as  beds  for 
the  family.  Their  furniture  usually  consists  of  an 
iron  pot  and  a  few  other  utensils.  The  bladders  of 
the  reindeer  are  frequently  used  to  carry  milk  and 
water  in.  In  his  habits  the  Lapp  is  uncleanly, 
good-natured,  and  always  endeavors  to  take  life 
easily. 


100     THE  CHUKCHIS  AND  THE  NAMOLLOS. 

The  sedentary  Laplander  is  usually  a  poor  fellow 
who  has  failed  as  a  reindeer  proprietor,  and  with  his 
family  has  settled  down  on  the  sea-coast  as  a  fisher- 
man, while  his  wife  spins  wool.  He  is  looked  down 
upon  by  all  of  his  more  fortunate  neighbors,  and 
by  the  Swede  and  Norwegian  is  said  to  be  despised. 
He  differs  in  almost  all  of  his  habits  from  the  peo- 
ple amongst  whom  he  lives,  and  his  children  are  not 
permitted  to  marry  into  the  better  classes. 

As  we  proceed  to  the  northeastern  regions  of  the 
continent  of  Asia  we  find  many  tribes  all  possessing 
strong  physical  characteristics  in  common,  although 
in  language  they  differ  in  some  instances  quite  de- 
cidedly. 

The  Cluikchis,  a  tall,  well-built  people,  with  promi- 
nent features  and  a  yellowish-brown  complexion, 
occupy  a  portion  of  the  region  in  the  extreme  north- 
eastern part  of  the  continent.  They  are  hunters 
and  fishermen. 

There  has  been  considerable  diversity  of  opinion 
as  to  the  origin  and  relationship  of  these  people,  it 
being  considered  by  some  that  they  may  have  been 
derived  from  a  Manchu  or  Tungus  people  which 
long  previously  settled  in  the  northeastern  region 
and  there  amalgamated  with  the  Onkilon  aborigines. 

The  Namollos  also  dwell  in  this  region,  and  in 
manners  and  habits  differ  but  little  from  their  neigh- 
bors. Their  language  is  considered  to  be  related  to 
that  of  the  Eskimos.  To  the  south  live  the  Kani- 
schatkans.  They  are  a  small  but  hardy  people.  Dur- 
ing the  winter  season  they  dwell  in  earth  pits  and 
in  the  summer  in  huts.    Their  most  useful  domestic 


THE    GILIAKS    AND    THE    ALEUTIANS.  lOI 

animal  is  the  dog,  of  a  peculiar  breed,  which  is  em- 
ployed in  hunting  and  sledging. 

On  the  lower  Amoor  and  in  Northern  Saghalien 
dwell  the  Gilmks.  They  live  generally  on  the  banks 
of  rivers  or  in  the  vicinity  of  the  sea,  and  for  their 
livelihood  depend  mainly  upon  fishing.  During  the 
summer  they  live  in  small  houses  constructed  on 
piles,  and  during  the  winter  in  huts  which  are  par- 
tially buried  in  the  ground.  Some  of  them  have 
abundant  beards,  which  feature  among  Asiatics  is 
quite  rare ;  owing  largely  to  this  characteristic  some 
anthropologists  have  considered  that  they  are  re- 
lated to  the  Ainos.  Others  consider  them  to  be 
allied  to  the  Tunguses.  They  are  quite  an  intelli- 
gent people,  and  are  usually  inclined  to  indulge  in 
trade,  and  in  the  selection  of  ornaments  they  are 
alleged  to  show  considerable  taste.  According  to 
Deniker,  they  probably  do  not  exceed  at  present 
5,000  individuals. 

The  Aleutians,  of  the  islands  of  that  name,  which 
extend  in  a  curve  from  the  peninsula  of  Alaska  to 
Kamschatka,  are  a  people  as  to  the  origin  of  which 
anthropologists  do  not  altogether  agree.  By  some 
they  are  considered  to  be  of  American  origin  and 
by  others  of  Asian  origin.  They  are  especially  well 
known  as  daring  and  expert  sailors  in  their  hide 
canoes.  They  are  of  medium  height ;  the  nose  is 
fiat,  and  the  skull  is  meso-cephalic.  Their  popula- 
tion at  the  present  time  is  said  to  consist  of  about 
2,000  individuals. 

Inhabiting  the  northern  portions  of  the  archipel- 
ago of  Japan  dwell  those  people  known  as  the  Aitios. 


102  THE    JAPANESE. 

They  differ  decidedly  from  the  Japanese  in  having 
a  Hghter  complexion ;  their  forehead  is  higher  and 
broader,  and  their  eyes  are  larger.  These  Ainos 
also  have  quite  a  covering  of  hair  on  their  bodies. 
They  depend  mainly  on  hunting  and  fishing  as  a 
means  of  gaining  a  livelihood,  and  lead  quite  a 
primitive  existence.  The  Ainos  are  generally  con- 
sidered to  be  a  much  older  people  than  the  Japanese. 
According  to  the  traditions  of  the  Japanese,  they 
reached  the  archipelago  they  now  inhabit  from  the 
south  and  southwest,  and  gradually  conquered  the 
Ainos  whom  they  found  there,  and  gradually  spread 
over  the  various  islands.  The  Japanese  physical 
type  is  characterized  by  a  flat  forehead,  a  small,  well- 
formed  nose,  with  nostrils  slightly  raised ;  the  eyes 
are  small  and  less  oblique  than  those  of  the  Chinese; 
the  hair  is  black  and  not  quite  as  straight  as  that  of 
the  Chinese;  the  average  height  is  5  feet  4  or  5 
inches;  the  complexion  is  of  an  olive-yellow.  These 
physical  characteristics  indicate  that  the  Japanese 
cannot  claim  purity  of  descent;  although  mainly 
of  Mongolic  origin,  these  people  have  been  modified 
by  other  blood. 

Intellectually,  the  Japanese  easily  surpass  all  other 
Mongolian  peoples,  and  they  are  now  apparently 
prepared  to  take  a  position  among  the  more  ad- 
vanced European  nations.  They  are  intelligent, 
progressive  and  heroic.  Probably  never  in  the 
whole  history  of  the  human  species  has  any  people 
so  willingly,  earnestly  and  quickly  adopted  a  higher 
civilization  as  the  Japanese  have  done.  Japan  pos- 
sesses quite  a  rich  native  art  and  an  extensive  liter- 
ature, treating  mainly  of  practical  subjects. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE    RED    (AMERICAN)    RACE. 

Contents. — The  characteristics  and  origin  of  the  race.  The 
Glacial  Period  in  America  and  its  bearing  on  the  antiquity  of 
man.  The  physical  uniformity  of  the  American  Indians,  their 
mental  endowments,  their  culture  and  their  languages.  The 
Eskimos.  The  Algonkins.  The  Crees.  The  Chipeways.  The 
Blackfeet.  The  Lenapes.  The  Iroquois.  The  Cayugas,  the 
Senegas,  the  Onondagons,  the  Oneidas  and  the  Mohawks.  The 
Dakotas  or  Sioux.  The  Muskhogeans,  the  Choctaws,  the 
Creeks  and  the  Seminoles.  The  Caddoes.  The  Pawnees.  The 
Yumas.  The  Pueblos.  The  "  Mound  Builders."  The  Sonora. 
The  Nahuas  or  Aztecs  and  their  civilization.  The  Toltecs. 
The  Otomis.  The  Totonacos.  The  Zapotecs.  The  Mixtecks. 
The  Mayas  and  their  civilization.  The  Caribs.  The  Arawaks. 
The  Tulpis,  the  Ges,  the  Crans,  the  Botocudos,  the  Coroados, 
the  Puris  and  the  Malalis.  The  Qquichuas  or  Incas.  The  Pat- 
agonians.     The  Fuegians. 

WHEN  the  continent  of  America  first  became 
known  to  the  civiHzed  nations  of  Europe  it 
was  inhabited  throughout  its  length  and  breadth  by 
primitive  tribes,  which  have  become  generally  known 
to  us  as  Indians,  thus  continuing  the  error  hrst  ad- 
vanced by  Columbus,  when  he  supposed  that  he  had 
found  the  western  route  to  India. 

The  American  Indians,  or  American  aborigines, 
while  differing  in  habits  and  customs  in  the  differ- 
ent portions  of  North,  Central  and  South  America, 
nevertheless  have  certain  strong  characteristics  in 
common  which  seem  to  prove  almost  to  an  abso- 
lute certainty  that  they  all  have  descended  from 
one    original    stock,   and    that    there   has    not   been 

(103) 


104        CHARACTERISTICS    OF    AMERICAN    INDIAN. 

that  commingling  of  different  peoples  as  was  so 
common  among  the  early  inhabitants  of  the  Eastern 
Hemisphere. 

The  general  characteristics  of  the  American  In- 
dian are  that  he  is  tall  in  stature,  the  hair  is  straight 
and  black  in  color,  the  skull  is  variable,  the  nose  is 
narrow,  the  jaws  are  straight,  the  cheek  bones  are 
high,  and  the  skin  is  of  a  coppery  or  reddish  hue. 
Owing  to  this  latter  character,  which  is,  however, 
quite  variable,  the  American  aborigines  are  known 
as  constituting  the  Red  race. 

The  ancestry  of  the  American  Indians  is  a  ques- 
tion about  which  there  has  been  much  discussion 
in  the  past,  and  which  at  the  present  time  cannot  be 
said  to  have  been  settled  to  the  satisfaction  of  all 
anthropologists,  although  the  consensus  of  opinion 
seems  to  be  to  consider  that  they  are  the  descend- 
ants of  the  Yellow  race,  and  probably  reached  North 
America  by  way  of  Behring  Strait,  although  no 
less  an  authority  than  Dr.  Brinton  considers  that : 
"  So  long  as  we  have  any  knowledge  of  the  mov- 
ings  at  this  point,  they  have  been  from  America 
into  Asia."  The  distinguished  naturalist,  Alexan- 
der von  Humboldt,  considered  that  the  natives  of 
Mexico  presented  all  of  the  important  physical 
characteristics  of  the  Mongolian,  excepting  only 
the  nose.  The  ethnologist,  J.  J.  von  Tschudi,  says 
that  he  has  seen  Chinese  whom  at  first  sight  he 
considered  to  belong  to  the  Botocudos  of  Sierra 
dos  Aimures.  All  of  the  aboriginal  American  tribes 
have  long,  heavy,  stiff  hair,  which,  on  cross-section, 
exhibits  a  circular  outline,  and   this   latter  feature 


THE    ORIGIN    OF    THE    AMERICAN    INDIAN.         I05 

alone  is,  perhaps,  the  strongest  argument  the  an- 
thropologists can  offer  in  support  of  the  ^Mongolian 
origin  of  the  American  Indians.  The  writer  once 
heard  the  late  Prof.  E.  D.  Cope  express  essentially 
this  same  opinion. 

Without  going  further  into  the  subject  of  the 
route  early  man  took  to  reach  America,  the  next 
question  to  consider  is  :  When  did  prehistoric  man 
make  his  first  appearance  on  this  continent?  This 
question  cannot,  of  course,  be  answered  positively, 
but  geological  data  have  furnished  some  valuable 
information  on  this  subject. 

During  the  pleistocene  period  a  most  important 
event  occurred  in  the  form  of  an  enormous  sheet  of 
ice  of  great  thickness  that  covered  the  greater  part 
of  Europe  and  America,  in  the  former  country 
reaching  as  far  down  as  the  fiftieth  parallel  of  north 
latitude,  and  in  the  latter  country  in  some  regions 
as  far  as  the  fortieth  parallel  of  north  latitude. 
This  period  is  known  as  the  Great  Ice  Age  or  the 
Glacial  Epoch.  How  long  this  ice  mass  remained 
intact  is  not  known.  It  is  fairly  certain,  however, 
that  once,  if  not  twice,  this  ice  sheet  receded,  and 
thus  we  have  two  or  more  ice  periods,  thus  also 
causing  an  ''  interglacial  period."  At  this  time  great 
climatic  changes  occurred.  From  the  glaciers  great 
rivers  flowed  all  the  year  around,  and  during  the 
summer  season  flooded  and  inundated  wide  tracts 
of  land,  and  in  time  deposited  large  quantities  of 
sand,  gravel  and  loam.  This  glacier  was,  from  all 
indications,  a  moving  mass  of  ice,  pushing  south- 
ward, carrying  in  front  of  it  a  long  line  of  earth 


I06  THE    GREAT    ICE    AGE    IN    AMERICA. 

and  boulders,  such  as  the  Alpine  glaciers  do  at  the 
present  time. 

During  this  ice  period  man  lived  in  Europe,  and 
it  is  highly  probable  that  his  advent  into  Europe 
was  even  long  before  the  Ice  Age.  The  remains  of 
early  man  have  been  found  many  times  in  the  gla- 
cial deposits  of  the  Old  World. 

In  North  America,  at  this  time,  essentially  the 
same  physical  conditions  existed  as  in  Europe.  It 
touched  the  Atlantic  Ocean  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Boston  and  New  York  harbors,  and  in  Pennsylvania 
evidences  of  its  presence  have  been  found  as  far 
south  as  the  fortieth  parallel ;  it  reached  across  the 
continent  in  an  irregular  line  north  of  the  Ohio  and 
south  of  the  Missouri  Rivers.  The  fauna  living  at 
this  time  included  the  mastodon,  a  species  of  horse, 
bison,  bear,  tapir,  peccary,  and  numerous  other 
forms,  together  with  the  gigantic  extinct  forms  of 
sloth,  as  the  megatherium,  the  mylodon  and  the 
megalonyx.  In  the  deposits  of  South  America  the 
remains  of  the  great  sloths  and  armadillos,  as  well 
as  other  mammals,  have  been  discovered. 

Evidence  of  the  presence  of  a  glacial  period  has 
also  been  found  in  South  Africa.  There  also  seems 
to  have  been  a  glacial  period  in  Australia  and  New 
Zealand.  In  Northern  and  Central  Asia  it  is  prob- 
able that  the  glaciers  were  of  great  magnitude. 

The  subject  of  the  glacial  period  in  America  is  of 
especial  interest  to  the  anthropologist,  for  it  at  once 
raises  the  question :  Did  man  live  in  America  during 
this  time  ? 

In  the  year  1875  Dr.  Charles  C.  Abbott  found  in 


THE  TRENTON  GRAVELS.  10/ 

the  gravel  deposits  at  Trenton,  N.  J.,  certain  stone 
implements  of  human  workmanship.  These  de- 
posits have  since  become  known  world-wide  as  the 
"Trenton  gravels."  They  are,  without  doubt,  gla- 
cial in  origin,  and  that  the  implements  are  the  work- 
manship of  man  cannot  be  questioned.  Since  that 
time  Dr.  Abbott  has  found  many  paleolithic  imple- 
ments in  these  gravels.  In  gravels  of  the  same  age 
in  Ohio,  Dr.  C.  L.  Metz  has  found  several  imple- 
ments, as  did  also  the  late  Dr.  Hilborn  T.  Cresson, 
the  latter  finding  a  specimen  of  paleolithic  imple- 
ment in  deposits  of  glacial  age  in  Indiana,  and 
another  near  Claymont,  Del.  Many  other  speci- 
mens have  been  reported  at  different  portions  of  this 
country,  but  that  any  of  these  specimens  are  of  the 
age  that  is  assigned  to  them  is  the  problem  to  be 
very  seriously  considered.  In  order  for  us  to  dem- 
onstrate positively  that  man  lived  in  America  dur- 
ing or  immediately  after  the  glacial  period,  we  must 
know  (i)  that  the  deposits  in  which  the  implements 
are  found  are  of  glacial  origin ;  (2)  that  the  imple- 
ments are  of  human  origin:  and  (3)  that  the  im- 
plements were  deposited  at  the  same  time  that  the 
gravels  were  deposited.  The  first  two  conditions 
can  very  easily  be  accepted,  but  they  are  valueless 
without  the  last,  and  in  all  of  the  alleged  discoveries 
of  paleoliths  in  the  glacial  deposits  of  America  it  is 
questioned  whether  the  implements  and  gravels 
were  deposited  at  the  same  time.  It  is  considered 
probable  that  the  implements  were  not  found  /;/  sit7i 
in  the  deposits,  /.  r..  were  not  deposited  simulta- 
neously with  the  gravels,  but  subsequently  to  that 


I08  THE  TRENTON  GRAVELS. 

event.  For  example,  a  grave  might  be  dug  in  a 
miocene  formation  during  our  own  time,  and  vari- 
ous bones  and  implements  might  be  here  buried  ; 
now,  if  the  grave  were  opened  a  generation  hence 
it  would  not  be  legitimate  for  us  to  assign  miocene 
age  to  these  specimens.  The  subject  of  the  antiquity 
of  man  in  the  Delaware  Valley,  as  indicated  by  the 
study  of  the  Trenton  gravels,  has  received  special 
consideration  by  anthropologists  not  only  of  Amer- 
ica, but  of  the  world,  and  the  general  tendency  of 
opinion  among  them  seems  to  be  that  the  longer 
the  investigation  is  continued  the  greater  becomes 
the  doubt  as  to  the  existence  of  man  in  America 
during  glacial  times.  Prof.  W.  H.  Holmes,  in 
accounting  for  the  origin  of  recent  paleoliths  in  the 
gravels  at  Trenton,  says:  "Every  bank  that 
crumbled,  every  grave  dug,  every  palisade  planted, 
every  burrow  made,  every  root  that  penetrated  and 
every  storm  that  raged,  took  part  in  the  work  of 
intermingling  and  burial,  and  following  in  turn 
came  the  resettling,  the  leeching  out  and  the  rece- 
menting  of  these  deposits,  making  it  difficult  to  dis- 
tinguish the  old  from  the  new.  It  follows,  there- 
fore, that  the  student  of  the  history  of  this  valley, 
and  especially  of  that  part  of  it  recorded  in  the  soil 
and  superficial  deposits,  should  not  for  a  moment 
lose  sight  of  these  conditions  and  events  of  recent 
and  comparatively  recent  history,  and  should  seek 
first  to  explain  all  phenomena  from  the  point  of 
view  thus  afforded  before  conjuring  up  shadowy 
images  of  other  races." 

While  the  evidence  up  to  date  is  not  sufficient  on 


THE    CALAVERAS    SKULL.  IO9 

the  one  hand  to  say  that  man  existed  here  during 
the  glacial  period,  on  the  other,  we  cannot  demon- 
strate that  he  was  not  here  during  that  time.  We 
must,  therefore,  really  assume  the  agnostic  position 
on  this  matter ;  but,  from  the  data  furnished  by  the 
Trenton  gravels,  it  seems  fair  for  us  to  suspect  the 
presence  of  man  in  this  region  when  the  gravels 
were  deposited. 

Some  students  of  the  antiquity  of  early  man  in 
North  America  have  considered  that  perhaps  the 
stone  implements  from  Table  Mountain  in  Cali- 
fornia, and  that,  also,  the  famous  skull  which  was 
alleged  to  have  been  found  in  the  deposits  of  aurif- 
erous gravel  in  Calaveras  county,  California,  ante- 
date the  remains  of  man  that  have  been  found  in  the 
eastern  portion  of  the  United  States.  These  stone 
implements  seem,  however,  to  be  too  perfectly  exe- 
cuted to  be  considered  as  having  been  made  by 
primitive  man,  and  the  record  of  the  Calaveras 
skull  is  too  unsatisfactory  to  be  accepted ;  and,  be- 
sides, there  is  much  question  as  to  what  age  the 
auriferous  gravels  should  be  assigned.  Dr.  Joseph 
Leidy,  who  described  many  remains  from  these  de- 
posits, doubted  very  much  the  antiquity  of  them 
as  assigned  by  some  authorities.  Prof.  J.  D. 
Whitney  considered  that  these  gold-bearing  gravels 
were  of  pliocene  age,  and  by  Prof.  Joseph  Le  Coute 
they  were  assigned  to  the  beginning  of  the  glacial 
epoch. 

All  of  the  primitive  nations  of  America  possessed 
remarkable  uniformity  in  their  physical  character- 
istics, and  all  attempts  to  classify  the  different  tribes 


no    THE  GENERAL  CULTURE  OF  THE  RACE. 

of  the  American  Indians  on  physical  criteria  have 
been  failures. 

The  mental  endowments  of  the  race  were  by  no 
means  low,  and  impartial  investigators  place  the 
Red  race  next  to  the  Yellow  race  in  intellectual 
capacity,  and  consider  it  far  superior  to  the  Black 
race. 

The  prevalent  idea  that  all  of  the  American 
Indians  devoted  most  of  their  attention  to  hunting 
and  war  is  erroneous.  In  many  portions  of  America, 
where  conditions  were  suitable,  attention  was  given 
to  agriculture.  Maize  was  cultivated  where  it  would 
grow.  Beans,  gourds  and  tobacco  were  also  culti- 
vated. The  Nahuas  of  Mexico  and  the  Mayas  of 
Yucatan  tilled  large  fields,  as  did  also  the  Iroquois 
and  the  Algonkins  of  the  Atlantic  Coast. 

The  domestication  of  wild  animals  by  any  primi- 
tive people  is  a  sign  of  superiority,  and  in  the  case 
of  the  American  aborigines,  as  far  as  the  fauna 
would  permit,  they  availed  themselves  of  the  oppor- 
tunities that  were  present.  Their  dogs  have  be- 
come historic ;  they  were  domesticated  from  a  spe- 
cies, or  perhaps  several  species,  of  wolf,  and  were 
used  for  hunting,  and  in  the  north  for  draught. 
In  Brazil  the  natives  are  said  to  have  made  pets  of 
monkeys  and  parrots.  In  South  America  the  llama 
was  used  as  a  beast  of  burden,  and  much  valued  for 
its  hair.  In  the  art  of  architecture  many  structures 
have  been  found  which  indicate  no  mean  ability  on 
the  part  of  the  builders,  as  in  Mexico,  Yucatan  and 
Peru. 

The  American  race  was  fond  of  music,  and  wind 


AMERICAN    LANGUAGES.  Ill 

instruments  and  "drums"  of  different  varieties  were 
made.  It  is  also  probable  that  they  were  not  alto- 
gether ignorant  of  stringed  instruments. 

In  religious  belief  probably  all  American  tribes, 
with  the  possible  exception  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Terra  del  Fuego,  believed  in  one  or  more  supreme 
beings,  and  they  all  had  their  myths  dealing  with 
the  exploits  of  their  hero-gods.  These  myths  dif- 
fered greatly  among  the  different  nations  and  their 
religious  ceremonies  were  various. 

The  native  American  languages  are  called  polysyn- 
thetic,  in  that  the  structure  of  the  sentence  is  merged 
in  the  form  of  the  word.  In  British  North  America 
and  United  States  fifty-nine  irreducible  stock  lan- 
guages have  been  recognized.  The  resemblances 
between  these  stocks  is  such,  however,  as  to  indicate 
a  common  origin.  Dr.  Brinton  says:  "Those  best 
acquainted  with  American  tongues  praise  them  most 
highly  for  flexibility,  accuracy  and  resources  of 
xepression.  They  place  some  of  them  above  any 
Aryan  language."  As  linguistic  differences  can  be 
recognized  in  the  American  tribes,  when  physical 
dift'erences  can  not,  language  has  greatly  facilitated 
their  classification,  as  a  relationship  of  language  in- 
dicates a  relationship  by  blood.  Major  J.  W.  Powell 
illustrates  this  perhaps  more  clearly  than  can  be 
done  in  any  other  manner  by  the  linguistic  map 
accompanying  his  work  on  the  "  Indian  Linguistic 
Families  of  America  North  of  Mexico." 

Throughout  almost  the  whole  extent  of  Arctic 
America  dwell  the  Eskimos,  which  term  was  first 
applied   to   them  by  Europeans.     They  call   them- 


112  THE    ESKIMOS. 

selves  Innuits  or  men.  Along  the  southern  borders 
of  their  habitat  they  have  for  their  neighbors  the 
Indian  tribes  proper. 

In  stature  the  Eskimo  is  medium  or  slightly 
below  the  medium.  The  face  is  broad,  round  and 
flat.  The  skull  is  frequently  dolichocephalic  in  the 
eastern  tribes,  but  in  the  western  tribes  is  brachy- 
cephalic.  These  people  seem  to  be  decreasing  in 
numbers,  and  important  causes  seem  to  be  sterility 
and  infant  mortality. 

The  Eskimos  are  of  a  bright,  cheerful  disposition ; 
they  appreciate  humor  and  are  fond  of  practical 
jokes.  They  show  a  remarkable  aptitude  in  acquir- 
ing knowledge.  They  are  fond  of  music,  and  have 
many  native  songs.  They  also  have  their  games 
and  pastimes,  as  well  as  their  festivals  of  a  semi- 
religious  character. 

The  whole  manner  of  their  life  is  very  uniform, 
and  is  dependent  largely  upon  the  supply  of  food 
at  the  different  seasons  of  the  year.  They  subsist 
largely  upon  the  seal,  the  deer  and  the  walrus. 
The  flesh  of  the  seal  supplies  them  with  food,  the 
blubber  furnishes  them  with  fuel  during  the  winter 
season,  and  out  of  the  skin  they  make  their  clothes 
and  tents,  in  which  they  live  in  the  summer.  In 
the  winter  they  live  in  houses  constructed  of  snow 
and  ice.  They  are  a  very  peaceful  people,  and  wars 
between  settlements  are  rare.  Dr.  Franz  Boas,  who 
spent  considerable  time  among  the  Central  Eskimos, 
was  unable  to  find  any  records  of  a  war  having 
occurred,  except  a  feud  that  was  alleged  to  have 
happened  seventy  years  before. 


THE    ALGONKINS.  II3 

The  Eskimo  makes  a  lamp  out  of  stone  and  fur- 
nishes it  with  a  wick  of  dried  moss.  They  are  ex- 
perts in  the  use  of  their  native  boats  or  ''  kyaks," 
which  are  long,  narrow  canoes  covered  with  skin. 
They  also  use  snow-shoes.  Their  sleds  with  teams 
of  dogs  are  exceedingly  useful.  "The  social  order 
of  the  Eskimo,"  says  Boas,  ''is  entirely  founded  on 
the  family  and  on  the  ties  of  consanguinity  and 
affinity  between  the  individual  families." 

At  the  time  of  the  discovery  of  America,  in  the 
region  extending  from  the  Rocky  Mountains  on  the 
west,  as  far  south  as  Delaware,  and  as  far  north  as 
Labrador,  thus  including  nearly  all  of  the  Northern 
States,  dwelt  the  Algonkin  nation.  The  Algonkins 
illustrate  as  well  as  any  other  of  the  American  abor- 
igines the  characteristics  of  the  Red  race,  and  they 
may  be  considered  as  being  typical  examples  of  the 
race,  both  physically  and  mentally.  They  occupied 
quite  an  extensive  geographical  area  in  eastern 
North  America,  extending  from  Labrador  and  the 
southern  shores  of  Hudson  Bay,  where  they  came  in 
contact  with  the  Eskimos,  southward  to  Cape  Fear 
and  Cape  Hatteras ;  it  is  difficult,  in  fact  impossible, 
to  determine  how  far  west  this  stock  extended,  as 
the  tracing  of  the  relationships  of  all  of  the  Indians 
of  central  North  America  is. 

In  Labrador  and  the  southern  shores  of  the  Hud- 
son Bay  region  dwelt  the  Crces.  On  the  island  of 
Newfoundland  were  the  Mic  Macs,  a  few  of  which, 
the  writer  found  in  1900,  still  remain  in  the  vicinity 
of  Bay  d'Espoir,  although  it  is  generally  stated  that 
they  are  extinct. 
8 


114    THE  BLACKFEET,  LENAPE,  AND  OTHERS. 

On  the  shores  of  Lake  Superior  were  found  the 
Chipeways.  In  the  region  of  the  headwaters  of  the 
Missouri  River  dwelt  the  Blackfeet,  and  in  the 
Delaware  Valley,  the  Lenapes.  In  addition  to  these 
there  were  many  other  tribes,  all  occupying  nearly 
the  same  plane  of  development  and  all  quite  similar 
in  manners  and  customs.  They  were  all  skilled  in 
the  making  of  stone  implements,  and  in  aboriginal 
warfare.  They  dwelt  in  villages  and  were  agricul- 
tural, raising  maize,  beans  and  tobacco.  Their  leg- 
ends were  many  and  they  valued  their  ancestral 
history.  They  had  a  primitive  system  of  writing, 
some  specimens  of  which  have  been  preserved.  The 
inscriptions  on  the  famous  Dighton  rock  in  Massa- 
chusetts, which  at  one  time  were  considered  by 
some  archaeologists  to  have  been  done  by  the 
Norsemen,  are  now  known  to  have  been  of  Algon- 
kin  origin.  The  Lenapes  were  also  considerably 
advanced  in  the  system  of  picture-writing. 

The  Iroquois  extended  from  Canada  southward 
to  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio;  they  were  surrounded 
on  all  sides  by  the  Algonkins.  The  tribes  of  the 
Cayugas,  Senecas,  Onondagons,  Oneidas  and  Mo- 
hawks bound  themselves  together  into  the  ''five 
nations,"  and  as  such  were  important  factors  in 
some  portions  of  colonial  history. 

The  Dakotas  or  Sioux  inhabited  the  grassy  plains 
between  the  Mississippi  River  and  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains and  extended  as  far  south  as  Arkansas. 

They  were  divided  into  many  tribes;  in  the 
southern  section  of  their  distribution  dwelt  the 
Quapaws,  the  Ka7isas,  and  the  Osages  ;  in  the  cen- 


THE    TUSCARORAS    AND    CHEROKEES.  II5 

tral  region  dwelt  the  Poncas,  the  Omahas,  and  the 
Assimboi7is,  and  the  Crows;  and  in  the  region 
about  Green  Bay  on  Lake  Michigan  dwelt  the 
Wifi7iebagoes. 

Still  further  south,  in  the  region  of  the  headwaters 
of  the  Roanoke  river,  dwelt  the  Tiiscaroras,  which 
at  a  later  date  formed  the  sixth  of  the  great  nations. 
The  Cherokees  dwelt  along  the  upper  waters  of  the 
Tennessee  river.  In  various  directions  all  of  these 
tribes  showed  great  ability,  and  their  intelligence 
must  be  considered  to  be  among  the  highest.  This 
was  especially  illustrated  in  their  system  of  govern- 
ment, when  the  chief,  Hiawatha,  succeeded  in  his 
great  scheme  of  linking  together  the  five  nations 
into  one  great  confederation.  Each  nation  was  per- 
mitted to  retain  its  own  individuality  relative  to  its 
own  affairs,  but  such  matters  as  concerned  and  af- 
fected all  were  controlled  by  a  federal  senate,  which 
was  composed  of  representatives  elected  by  each 
nation.  The  ablest  of  the  ruling  chiefs  were  usually 
elected  to  be  representatives  in  the  federal  senate. 
The  idea  intended  by  this  federation  was  very  elab- 
orate, and  it  was  intended  to  be  nideiinitely  expan- 
sible, and  had  its  objects  been  accomplished  it  would 
have  been  far  more  powerful  and  it  would  have 
wielded  much  more  influence  than  it  did. 

The  Miiskhogeans,  including  the  Choctaws,  the 
Creeks,  the  Scminoles  and  a  few  other  tribes,  inhab- 
ited the  region  bordering  on  the  Gulf  of  Mexico, 
and  extended  as  far  north  as  the  base  of  the  Appa- 
lachian Mountains.  A  few  Seminoles  still  remain 
in  some  of  the  wilder  portions  of  Florida. 


Il6  THE    PUEBLOS. 

The  Caddoes  extended  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico 
west  of  the  Mississippi  River  to  the  Platte  River. 
The  Pawnees  belong  to  this  group.  So  far  as  we 
know,  they  were  not  especially  advanced  in  any 
particular,  and  depended  largely  on  hunting  and 
fishing  as  their  means  of  sustenance. 

The  Rocky  Mountain  region  was  occupied  by 
many  different  tribes  who  spoke  many  different 
stock  languages.  Geographically,  the  most  import- 
ant were  the  Yumas,  who  occupied  the  valley  of  the 
Colorado  River  and  the  peninsula  of  Lower  Cali- 
fornia. 

Tht  Pueblos  occupied  portions  of  New  Mexico  and 
Arizona.  They  dwelt  in  large  habitations,  built  of 
stone  and  sun-dried  brick,  which  in  some  instances 
are  large  enough  to  contain  a  whole  tribe.  These 
edifices  are  frequently  several  stories  high.  These 
people  were  first  visited  by  the  Spanish  in  the  year 
1530.  The  Pueblos  were  agriculturists,  and  were 
also  skilled  in  the  making  of  pottery,  as  well  as  in 
spinning  and  weaving.  From  the  ruins  of  the  old 
habitations  and  the  old  pottery  found,  it  is  evident 
that  at  one  time  they  were  quite  numerous. 
Throughout  the  region  of  the  Colorado  and  Rio 
Grande  Rivers,  upon  the  cliffs  overlooking  the  deep 
gorges,  are  found  the  "cliff-houses,"  which  were 
built  upon  the  ledges  of  the  rocks.  It  is  supposed 
that  these  buildings  served  as  places  of  retreat  from 
the  more  hostile  tribes.  Brinton  has  divided  the 
Pueblos  into  three  different  stocks,  the  Kera,  the 
Tehua  and  the  Zunt. 

Before  considering   the   native   tribes  of  Central 


THE   MOUND   BUILDERS.  II7 

America  it  is  well  that  reference  be  made  to  the  so- 
called  ''Mound  Builders."  At  various  portions  of 
the  United  States  between  the  Allegheny  and  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  especially  in  the  Ohio  Valley, 
and  also  in  the  Gulf  States,  are  found  a  number  of 
remarkable  earth  mounds.  In  form  they  differ 
considerably,  being  round,  oval  or  square,  and  in 
some  instances  triangular  in  outline.  In  height 
they  are  from  a  few  inches  to  nearly  a  hundred  feet. 
The  majority  of  them  are  burial  mounds,  others  are 
defensive,  and  others  again  probably  have  a  religious 
origin.  Some  of  them  represent  certain  animal 
forms,  as  mammals,  birds  and  reptiles.  It  was  for- 
merly supposed  that  these  mounds  were  constructed 
by  a  former  race  of  people  which  occupied  this 
country  before  the  American  Indians ;  but  now  such 
is  not  considered  to  be  the  case,  and,  in  fact,  it  has 
been  almost  conclusively  settled  that  they  were  con- 
structed by  the  native  Indians.  On  this  subject 
Major  Powell  says:  ''With  regard  to  the  mounds 
so  widely  scattered  between  the  two  oceans,  it  may 
be  said  that  mound-building  tribes  were  known  in 
the  early  history  of  discovery  of  this  continent,  and 
that  the  vestiges  of  art  discovered  do  not  excel  in 
any  respect  the  arts  of  the  Indian  tribes  known  to 
history.  There  is,  therefore,  no  reason  for  us  to 
search  for  an  extralimital  origin  through  lost  tribes 
for  the  arts  discovered  in  the  mounds  of  North 
America." 

At  the  time  of  the  discovery  of  the  continent, 
mound-building  was  probably  still  in  progress,  as 
some  of   these  mounds  have,  without  doubt,  been 


Il8  MEXICAN    TRIBES. 

finished  since  that  time,  because  in  some  instances 
articles  of  European  workmanship  have  been  found 
therein.  Dr.  Cyrus  Thomas,  in  his  "  Report  on  the 
Mound  Explorations,"  cites  instances  where  three 
small  copper  bells  were  taken  from  one  mound, 
from  another  a  piece  of  silver  stamped  with  the 
Spanish  coat-of-arms,  and  from  another  an  old 
steel-bladed,  bone-handled  case-knife.  These  and 
many  other  facts  show  that  these  mounds  are  not  as 
ancient  as  they  were  at  one  time  supposed  to  be. 

A  number  of  tribes  occupying  Mexico  and  por- 
tions of  the  country  north  of  Mexico  have  been 
united  into  a  single  group  by  Bushmann,  which  he 
has  called  the  Sonora.  He  devoted  particular  at- 
tention to  the  phonetic  system,  the  numerals  and 
the  grammar  of  these  peoples,  and  from  this  study 
demonstrated  the  relationship  of  the  Tarahumaras^ 
the  Telpehtianas,  the  Coras  and  the  Cahttas.  The 
Moqtioi,  the  Utes,  the  Cornanches  and  the  Shoshonees 
or  Sftake  Indians,  from  linguistic  evidence,  are  con- 
sidered to  be  related.  All  of  these  tribes  show  that 
their  vocabulary  has  more  or  less  been  adopted  from 
the  Nahuatl  language  which  was  spoken  by  the 
people  of  Mexico. 

The  Nahuas,  or  Aztecs,  occupied  or  controlled 
the  greater  portion  of  Mexico  at  the  time  the  coun- 
try was  discovered  by  Cortez,  and  here  they  had 
developed  quite  a  high  stage  of  civilization.  They 
had  built  up  large  cities,  composed  of  thousands  of 
houses  of  brick  and  stone.  In  these  cities  a  thriv- 
ing business  was  carried  on,  particularly  on  market 
days,  and  their  merchants  did  an  extensive  trade, 
reaching  well  down  towards  the  Isthmus  of  Panama. 


THE    NAHUAS.  II9 

The  Nahuas  were  an  industrious,  active  and  en- 
terprising people.  They  were  agricultural,  raising 
maize,  cotton,  beans  and  tobacco,  and  in  architec- 
ture showed  their  skill  in  their  temples  and  monu- 
ments. They  were  familiar  with  the  arts  of  making 
pottery  and  the  weaving  and  coloring  of  fabrics. 
They  were  able  to  cut  and  polish  the  hardest  stones, 
and  possessed  knowledge  as  to  the  fusing  of  metals. 

The  religion  of  the  Nahuas  was  polytheistic,  and 
their  most  important  deity  was  the  God  of  War. 
When  Cortez  visited  Mexico  he  found  attached  to 
the  temple  about  5,000  priests.  They  were  en- 
trusted with  the  education  of  the  young.  The 
women  were  in  many  instances  on  equal  footing 
with  the  men.  Reading,  writing  and  arithmetic 
were  taught  both  sexes,  as  were  also  their  astron- 
omy and  astrology.  There  were  priestesses  as  well 
as  priests. 

The  calendar  of  the  Nahuas  recognized  the  solar 
year  of  365  days,  which  was  divided  into  eighteen 
months  of  twenty  days  each,  with  the  extra  five 
days  added  to  the  last.  The  difference  between  the 
actual  time  of  the  earth's  annual  journey  around 
the  sun  and  their  year  was  corrected  by  every  fifty- 
second  year  intercalculating  thirteen  days.  It  is 
also  probable  that  they  knew  the  cause  of  eclipses. 

Their  writing  was  in  hieroglyphic  characters  which 
were  painted  on  paper  made  from  the  leaves  of  the 
magney  plant.  This  system  of  writing  has  been 
called  by  Brinton  the  "  ikonomatic  method." 

According  to  tradition  the  Toltecs  are  said  to 
have  come  from  the  north  and  occupied  this  region 


120  THE    MAYAS. 

prior  to  the  time  of  the  Nahuas ;  but  the  tendency 
among  present  writers  seems  to  be  to  consider  that 
the  Toltecs  were  probably  merely  a  tribe,  and  that 
all  of  the  remarkable  accounts  as  to  their  civilization 
have  been  greatly  exaggerated. 

Besides  the  Nahuas  there  were  a  number  of  other 
tribes  in  this  region,  which,  while  of  interest  to  the 
specialist  in  American  ethnology,  are  hardly  of  suf- 
ficient importance  to  be  dwelt  upon  here. 

The  Otoniis  are  of  interest  on  account  of  the  char- 
acter of  their  language,  which  is  largely  monosylla- 
bic. The  natives  whom  Cortez  first  encountered  on 
landing  in  Mexico  are  supposed  to  have  been  the 
Totonacos ;  they  were  considerably  advanced  in 
civilization,  and  in  religion  were  sun-worshippers. 
The  Zapotecs,  at  the  time  of  the  conquest,  had  made 
considerable  progress.  They  were  an  agricultural 
people  and  dwelt  in  villages.  Their  neighbors,  the 
Mixtecs,  were  on  about  the  same  plane  of  culture. 
All  of  these  tribes  indicate  that  their  contact  with 
the  Nahuas  was  decidedly  beneficial  to  them. 

During  pre-Columbian  times,  the  Peninsula  of 
Yucatan  and  the  territory  south  of  it  to  the  Pacific 
Ocean  were  occupied  by  the  Mayas.  They  are  de- 
scribed to  be  of  about  average  stature,  with  robust, 
bony  frames,  brachycephalic  skull,  which  was  some- 
times artificially  compressed. 

The  Mayas  held  out  more  strenuously  and  suc- 
cessfully against  the  Spaniards  than  did  the  Nahuas, 
and  even  at  the  present  day  their  influence  is  still 
strong  in  Yucatan,  where  in  the  inland  portions  a 
knowledge  of  the  Maya   language   is  necessary  to 


THE    MAYAS.  12  T 

hold  intercourse  with  the  natives.  In  some  por- 
tions it  is  said  that  even  the  descendants  of  the 
Spaniards  have  forgotten  their  mother  tongue. 
The  large  majority  of  their  towns  are  known  by 
their  native  names. 

While  these  people  were  probably  never  visited 
by  Columbus,  it  seems,  nevertheless,  that  he  had 
heard  of  them.  It  is  well  known  that  Columbus  in 
his  first  three  voyages  did  not  reach  the  continent 
of  America.  On  his  fourth  and  last  expedition, 
however,  he  discovered  a  small  island  known  to  the 
natives  by  the  name  of  Guanaja.  This  island  was 
probably  the  one  now  known  as  the  Island  of  Bon- 
aca,  off  the  coast  of  Honduras.  While  on  this  island 
he  saw  a  canoe  filled  with  natives  coming  from  the 
west.  In  reply  to  the  inquiries  of  the  Spaniards  as 
to  gold,  they  pointed  to  the  we  stand  unsuccessfully 
endeavored  to  persuade  Columbus  to  accompany 
them.  In  the  words  of  Washington  Irving,  as  quoted 
by  Stephens,  ''Well  would  it  have  been  for  Colum- 
bus had  he  followed  their  advice.  Within  a  day  or 
two  he  would  have  arrived  at  Yucatan ;  the  dis- 
covery of  Mexico  and  the  other  opulent  countries  of 
New  Spain  would  have  necessarily  followed.  The 
southern  ocean  would  have  been  disclosed  to  him, 
and  a  succession  of  splendid  discoveries  would  have 
shed  fresh  glory  on  his  declining  age,  instead  of  its 
sinking  amid  gloom,  neglect  and  disappointment." 

The  first  European  to  visit  Yucatan  was  Francisco 
Hernandez  de  Cordova,  in  the  year  15 17.  Although 
many  expeditions  were  sent  out  and  attempts  at 
conquests  made,  it  was  not  until  1541  that  a  perma- 


122  THE   MAYAS. 

nent  settlement  was  established.  In  this  year  the 
younger  Francisco  de  Montejo  went  into  the  coun- 
try to  the  site  of  an  ancient  town  called  Ichcanziho, 
to  which  he  gave  the  name  of  Merida,  the  present 
capital  of  Yucatan. 

The  Mayas  were  one  of  the  most  cultured  of  the 
American  aboriginal  peoples,  and  it  seems  probable 
that  they  may  have  been  descended  from  the  Nahuas, 
although  their  traditions,  monuments,  hieroglyphics 
and  language  dififer.  They  were  particularly  adept 
in  the  art  of  architecture,  and  their  building  mate- 
rial was  usually  a  hard  limestone.  Their  monu- 
ments usually  face  the  cardinal  points.  The  build- 
ings were  erected  largely  on  the  pyramidal  form, 
rising  from  a  broad  base  through  a  series  of  steps  to 
the  summit.  The  highest  of  these  pyramids  was 
less  than  lOO  feet.  The  base  sometimes  occupied 
considerable  space,  as  that  of  Zayi,  near  Uxmal, 
had  a  periphery  of  over  1,500  feet. 

The  Mayas  were  familiar  with  the  bow  and  arrow, 
the  lance,  and  the  blowpipe  or  sarbacane,  and  were 
quite  expert  in  war  and  the  chase ;  but,  nevertheless, 
they  were  essentially  an  agricultural  people.  Maize 
was  their  most  important  product,  and  they  also 
raised  beans,  peppers,  cotton  and  tobacco.  Copper 
and  gold  were  their  important  metals,  and  they 
were  familiar  with  silver,  but  were  not  acquainted 
with  iron.  These  metals  were  used  mainly  for 
decoration,  and  it  is  doubtful  whether  they  under- 
stood the  art  of  smelting.  The  Mayas  constructed 
rafts  and  canoes,  which  they  were  able  to  navigate 
with  great  skill,  and  it  is  alleged  they  were  familiar 


THE    MAYAS.  123 

with  the  sail.  They  had  their  gods,  but  we  know 
very  Httle  about  their  reHgion.  Human  sacrifices 
did  not  take  place  as  frequently  among  the  Mayas 
as  among  the  Nahuas.  Sacrifices,  when  they  did 
occur,  were  followed  by  several  holidays,  and  danc- 
ing, banquets  and  drunkenness  were  indulged  in,  as 
they  were  acquainted  with  several  fermented  drinks. 

According  to  Dr.  Brinton,  essentially  the  same 
-calendar  system  was  in  use  among  the  Mayas  as 
that  which  was  used  by  the  Nahuas,  and  Dr.  Cyrus 
Thomas  considers  there  is  in  these  calendars  some 
evidence  of  a  Polynesian  influence. 

The  Mayas  were  familiar  with  the  art  of  writing, 
and  employed  the  so-called  ''  calculiform "  hiero- 
glyphics, so  named  from  their  resemblance  to  the 
outline  of  calculi  or  pebbles.  Associated  with  these 
characters  are  certain  crude  drawings,  frequently  of 
their  gods,  of  which  the  hieroglyphics  are  supposed 
to  be  descriptive.  The  hieroglyphic  writing  of  the 
Mayas  has  been  preserved  on  stone,  wood,  pottery 
and  sheets  of  native  paper.  Of  the  latter,  four 
manuscripts,  or  ''Codices,"  are  known  to  be  in  ex- 
istence. ]\Iuch  time  and  labor  have  been  expended 
on  the  deciphering  of  these  works,  but  thus  far  the 
result  has  not  been  as  satisfactory  as  could  be 
desired.  There  are  a  number  of  different  tribes  in- 
cluded in  the  Maya  stock,  each  differing  to  a  slight 
extent  in  language  and  customs. 

On  the  continent  of  South  America  the  so-called 
"hunting  tribes"  predominate,  and  only  in  or  near 
the  Andes  do  we  find  tribes  which  are  to  any  extent 
civilized.     Their   languages    differ   greatly,   and    no 


124  SOUTH    AMERICAN    TRIBES. 

attempt  has  been  successful  in  classifying  them  sat- 
isfactorily, as  has  in  some  instances  been  fairly  well 
done  with  the  native  North  American  tongues. 

On  the  northern  coast  of  South  America,  partic- 
ularly that  portion  bordering  on  the  Caribbean  Sea, 
dwelt  the  Caribs.  They  were  an  intelligent  people 
and  were  good  sailors,  and  are  said  to  have  es- 
tablished a  colony  in  Hayti,  although  they  were 
cannibals.  Inhabiting  the  coast  between  the  rivers 
Orinoco  and  Amazon  were  found  the  Arawaks  ;  the 
greater  and  lesser  Antilles  were  also  occupied  by 
them ;  some  cultivated  the  soil  and  made  their  gar- 
ments from  wild  cotton,  which  they  were  able  to 
spin  and  weave;  they  were  probably  the  first  natives 
Columbus  came  in  contact  with  in  the  new  world. 

Throughout  the  vast  territory  drained  by  the 
Amazon  River  are  a  large  number  of  different 
tribes  whose  relationships  are  very  obscure.  The 
early  explorers  in  this  region  found  first  the  Tulpis, 
and  under  this  name  a  large  number  of  different 
tribes  have  at  times  been  included.  The  territory 
drained  by  the  Tocantin  River  was  occupied  by  the 
G^s,  and  also  the  Crans,  to  which  were  related  the 
Botocudos,  the  Coroados,  the  Puris  and  the  Malalis. 

The  people  possessing  the  greatest  culture  in 
South  America  were  the  Qquichuas,  or  Incas,  of 
Peru.  They  extended  in  the  Andes  region  from  about 
the  equator  southward  for  a  distance  of  at  least  2,000 
miles  in  length,  and  in  width  from  200  to  400  miles. 
The  origin  of  the  Qquichuas  is  unknown,  but  from 
the  extent  of  their  architecture  it  is  certain  they 
had   been   developing   for   a   long   period   of    time. 


THE    PERUVIANS.  I25 

They  erected  many  remarkable  stone  buildings, 
forts,  walls  and  bridges.  Water,  which  is  so  highly 
valued  in  tropical  climates,  was  collected  in  reser- 
voirs, and  through  aqueducts  was  frequently  con- 
veyed many  miles.  They  were  familiar  with  gold 
and  silver,  and  were  expert  in  manipulating  these 
metals,  making  articles  of  various  kinds  with  math- 
ematical precision.  They  were  acquainted  with  the 
art  of  weaving  cotton  and  the  wool  of  the  llama  and 
alpacas.  They  were  able  to  make  their  fabrics  of 
different  colors,  as  they  were  conversant  with 
methods  of  dyeing. 

Their  most  important  domestic  animal  was  the 
llama,  which  they  used  for  carrying  burdens,  for 
food  and  for  wool.  The  dog  was  also  domesticated, 
and  also  a  species  of  fowl.  Their  most  important 
agricultural  products  were  maize,  cotton,  coca,  pota- 
toes and  tobacco. 

The  Peruvians  gave  especial  attention  to  the 
mummification  of  the  dead,  and  interred  the  re- 
mains in  sepulchres.  They  believed  in  the  immor- 
tality of  the  soul,  and  worshipped  the  sun,  moon 
and  stars.  In  certain  districts  they  worshipped 
particular  animals ;  in  others  the  mountains  and 
the  sea. 

So  far  as  we  know  they  were  acquainted  with  no 
system  of  writing,  and  with  no  method  of  numera- 
tion. As  a  substitute  it  seems  they  used  the  quipos, 
which  consisted  of  strings  of  different  lengths, 
knotted  in  various  ways  to  have  certain  significa- 
tions. Their  pottery  exhibits  great  beauty,  and 
was  made  in  many  different  designs. 


126  THE    PATAGONIANS    AND    FUEGIANS. 

The  Patagonians  are  a  roaming  set  of  people  of 
large  physique;  they  care  but  little  for  improvement, 
and  have  but  few  religious  rites,  although  they  are 
alleged  to  salute  the  new  moon. 

They  call  themselves  CJionek  or  Tsoiteca,  or 
Inaken,  which  signifies  the  men  or  the  people,  and 
by  their  more  northern  neighbors  they  are  referred 
to  as  Tehuel-Che,  which  signifies  the  southerners. 
An  interesting  fact  relative  to  their  language  was 
pointed  out  by  Ramon  Lista;  he  compared  many 
words  in  their  present  vocabulary  with  the  vocabu- 
lary collected  by  Pigafetta  on  his  voyage  in  the  year 
1520,  and  he  has  shown  that  since  that  time  little 
or  no  change  has  occurred. 

On  the  barren  land  of  Terra  del  Fuego  dwell  the 
Fuegians.  In  culture  they  occupy  quite  an  inferior 
position,  which  is  probably  more  the  result  of  their 
environment  rather  than  any  inferior  mental  de- 
velopment. They  are  without  government  and  go 
almost  naked.  A  redeeming  feature,  however,  is 
that  they  have  domesticated  a  native  species  of  dog, 
the  friend  and  companion  of  man  in  every  latitude. 

There  are  three  groups  of  people  recognized  as 
inhabiting  Terra  del  Fuego.  One  of  them  being 
the  Yahgans,  or  Yapoos,  on  the  Beagle  canal ; 
another  group  is  the  Onas,  or  Aonik,  to  the  north 
and  east  of  the  Yahgans ;  and  the  third  is  the 
Aliculufs,  which  dwell  to  the  north  and  west.  As 
would  naturally  be  expected,  they  are  all  in  about 
the  same  stage  of  culture,  and  the  ordinary  family 
ties  are  said  to  be  almost  entirely  lacking.  In  the 
arts  of  hunting   and   fishing,   however,   they  show 


THE    FUEGIANS.  I27 

considerable  ingenuity.  As  to  their  weapons,  they 
have  the  shng,  the  bow,  the  bola,  and  the  lance. 
The  women  are  quite  clever  in  the  making  of  strong 
reed  baskets.  The  bark  canoes  made  and  used  by 
the  Fuegians  are  considered  to  be  quite  seaworthy. 


CHAPTER  V. 
THE  WHITE  (European)  race. 

Contents. — The  physical  characteristics  of  the  races.  The  race 
in  the  region  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea.  The  South  Mediter- 
ranean branch.  The  Hamites.  The  Berbers.  The  Libyans. 
The  Moors.  The  Numidians.  The  Guanches.  The  Rifians. 
The  Egyptians  and  their  culture.  The  East  Africans.  The 
Bedjas.  The  Daakals,  or  Afars.  The  Gallas.  The  Somalis. 
The  Massi.  The  Semites.  The  Arabs.  The  Abyssinians. 
The  Armenians.  The  Syrians.  The  Assyrians.  The  Baby- 
lonians. The  Jews.  The  North  Mediterranean  branch.  The 
Basques.  The  Aryans  and  their  origin.  The  Umbrians. 
The  Samnites.  The  Latins,  or  Romans.  The  Celts.  The 
Highland  Scotch.  The  Irish.  The  Manx.  The  Welsh. 
The  Teutons.  The  Goths.  The  Vandals.  The  Angles  and 
Saxons.  The  Danes.  The  Norsemen.  The  Franks.  The 
Lombards.  The  Swedes.  The  Norwegians.  The  Icelanders. 
The  Germans.  The  Slavs.  The  Huns.  The  Russians.  The 
Ruthenians.  The  Poles.  The  Czechs.  The  Bulgarians.  The 
Wends,  or  Sorbs.  The  Letts.  The  Albanians.  The  Illyrians. 
The  Armenians.  The  Baktrians.  The  Persians.  The  Cau- 
casic  peoples,  their  languages  and  their  tribes. 

IN  the  history  of  mankind  the  most  important 
and  successful  peoples  have  been  those  of  the 
White  race.  From  the  humblest  of  beginnings,  as 
primitive  as  any  of  those  with  which  we  are  familiar, 
the  race  has  struggled  onward,  overcoming  all  ob- 
stacles, adapting  itself  to  various  environments,  and 
finally  has  succeeded  in  attaining  the  highest  human 
development  with  which  we  are  acquainted. 

The  physical  characteristics  of  this  race  are  more 
variable  than  those  of  any  of  the  other  races,  the 

(128) 


PHYSICAL  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  WHITE  RACE.        I29 

reason  being  probably  because  the  race  has  existed 
under  more  diverse  environments  than  any  of  the 
others. 

The  individuals  are  usually  possessed  of  a  whitish- 
colored  skin,  which  may  be  very  florid  or  ruddy, 
merging  in  some  instances  into  a  dusky  or  swarthy 
complexion ;  or  in  some  instances  again  it  may  be 
of  a  light  olive,  or  some  of  the  various  shades  of 
brown. 

The  hair  is  flaxen,  light  brown,  black,  or  some- 
times red.  On  cross-section  it  presents  an  oval 
outline.  It  is  usually  wavy,  with  a  tendency  to  be 
curly. 

The  skull  is  generally  mesocephalic,  with  the  ten- 
dency, however,  to  present  considerable  variation. 

It  has  long  been  recognized  that  many  of  the 
oldest  peoples  of  the  white  race  have  dwelt  in  the 
region  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea ;  the  race,  in  fact, 
is  sometimes  referred  to  as  the  Mediterranean  race. 
The  real  significance  of  this  distribution  on  the  part 
of  this  race  has  not,  however,  been  fully  recognized 
until  comparatively  recent  years,  but  now  it  is  con- 
sidered by  some  of  the  ablest  anthropologists  that 
the  White  race  possibly  originated  at  some  point 
in  the  basin  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  there  are  a 
number  of  reasons  which  seem  to  indicate  that 
Northern  Africa  may  have  been  the  region  where 
the  White  race  first  became  differentiated. 

From  miocene  times  many  geological  changes 
have  occurred  in  this  region,  and  the  contour  of 
the  Mediterranean  has  been  considerably  altered. 
Land  connections  of  quite  an  extensive  size  seem 

9 


130  MEDITERRANEAN    BRANCHES. 

to  have  been  present  during  pliocene  and  post- 
pliocene  times,  connecting  Northern  Africa  with 
Southern  Europe.  This  explains  the  geographical 
distribution  of  many  of  the  plants  and  animals  of 
this  region,  and  at  the  same  time  makes  it  highly 
probable  that  the  migrations  of  early  man  were 
afifected  thereby. 

Dr.  Brinton  considered  the  White  race  to  be 
**  geographically  and  historically  an  African  race," 
and  he  pointed  out  that,  when  the  inhabitants  of 
the  three  great  continents  became  known,  the  White 
race  possessed  in  Asia,  2,500,000  square  miles;  in 
Europe,  3,000,000  square  miles ;  and  in  Africa, 
3,500,000  square  miles. 

The  close  association  of  the  White  race  to  the 
Mediterranean  region  results  in  the  very  natural 
division  of  the  race  into  two  groups:  the  South 
Mediterranean  branch  and  the  North  Mediterranean 
branch. 

The  South  Mediterranean  branch  comprises  the 
Hamttic  and  the  Semitic  peoples. 

The  Hamites  occupy  North  Africa  from  the  Medi- 
terranean to  the  Soudan,  and  along  the  coast  region 
of  Eastern  Africa,  north  of  the  equator,  to  the 
Atlantic  Ocean.  They  are  divided  into  three 
groups :  the  Berbers,  the  ancient  Egyptians,  and 
the  East  African, 

The  Berbers  include  the  Libyans,  the  Moors,  the 
Nujnidians,  the  Gtianches,  the  Rifians,  and  other 
peoples.  All  of  the  Berbers  are  readily  identified 
as  members  of  the  White  race;  the  brunette  type 
predominates,  although  blondes   are  found.     Their 


THE    EGYPTIANS.  I3I 

language,  while  furnishing  many  dialects  in  different 
sections  of  the  country,  presents  in  general  great 
uniformity.  The  Berbers  have  inhabited  their  pres- 
ent locality  from  the  earliest  times,  and  there  is 
every  reason  to  suppose  they  are  the  indigenous  in- 
habitants ;  and,  although  there  have  been  many  ex- 
peditions of  conquest  into  their  territory  at  various 
times,  they  have  preserved  their  racial  purity  with 
great  tenacity.  Their  government  consists  of  vil- 
lages united  into  federations,  which  at  times  have 
been  quite  powerful.  About  1400  B.  C.  they  had 
an  army  against  Egypt  consisting  of  30,000  men. 
''At  that  date,"  says  Brinton,  "the  nations  of  the 
North  Mediterranean  branch  were  yet  in  the  stone 
age,  and  the  sites  of  Greece  and  Rome  were  the 
homes  of  savages."  The  Berbers  were  one  of  the 
most  cultured  of  the  early  members  of  the  White 
race,  and  while  they  have  not  kept  pace  with  the 
development  of  human  progress,  they  nevertheless 
largely  retain  their  early  culture. 

Confined  in  the  narrow  limits  of  the  valley  of  the 
river  Nile,  shut  ofif  from  the  rest  of  the  world  by 
continuous  deserts,  we  find  the  most  cultured  peo- 
ple of  antiquity,  the  ancient  Egyptians.  Judging 
from  their  skeletons,  they  resembled  the  other 
members  of  the  White  race  in  general,  and  their 
neighbors,  the  Berbers,  in  particular.  In  the  mod- 
ern Egyptian  the  stature  is  medium ;  the  skull  is 
dolichocephalic ;  the  hair  is  dark  and  straight,  or 
slightly  curly;  the  nose  is  long  and  straight,  or 
aquiline.  In  color  the  Egyptians  were  among  the 
darkest  members  of  the  White  race,  varying  from  a 


132  THE    EGYPTIANS. 

yellowish-white  to  a  reddish-brown.  By  the  ancient 
Greeks  they  were  considered  to  be  quite  dark. 
Herodotus  calls  them  ''blacks."  They  probably 
did  not  differ  very  materially  from  the  Copts  of  the 
present  day. 

In  intellectual  development  and  civilization  the 
ancient  Egyptians  occupied  a  high  position.  Intel- 
lectually they  possessed  much  subtlety  and  acute- 
ness.  They  were  devoted  to  science,  to  literature, 
and  to  art.  They  possessed  a  literature  embracing 
works  on  philosophy,  mathematics,  religion,  law, 
medicine,  and  other  departments  of  knowledge. 
Their  architecture  was  massive,  but  was  lacking  in 
the  higher  qualities  of  art. 

While  the  Egyptians  possessed  many  of  the  vir- 
tues of  later  civilized  peoples,  they,  nevertheless,  in- 
dulged in  many  vices.  Drunkenness  was  not  rare 
among  them,  and  was  indulged  in  by  the  young  as 
well  as  by  the  old.  Dyes,  cosmetics,  false  hair, 
etc.,  were  used  by  the  Egyptian  beauties,  which 
have  long  since  faded  into  withered  mummies,  for 
the  same  purpose  as  they  are  used  by  the  society 
belles  of  the  present  day.  Games  and  sports  of 
many  kinds  were  popular.  Banquets  were  common, 
and  the  costumes  worn  were  magnificent.  Theo- 
retically they  had  a  moral  code,  but  as  a  rule  it  was 
not  put  into  practice. 

Strong  evidence  of  Egyptian  development  is 
shown  in  their  calendar.  The  year  was  divided  into 
twelve  months,  which  were  divided  into  three  weeks 
of  ten  days  each,  to  which  were  added  five  extra 
days.      Their  system  of  hieroglyphic  writing   con- 


THE    HAMITIC    STOCK.  I33 

tributed  greatly  to  the  advancement  of  civilization, 
their  records  containing  the  earliest  phonetic  char- 
acters known. 

The  country  they  inhabited  doubtless  contributed 
largely  to  the  early  ripening  of  their  culture,  the 
regular  rise  and  fall  of  the  waters  of  the  Nile  being 
very  favorable  to  their  agriculture. 

The  antiquity  of  Egyptian  culture  can  only  be 
estimated  approximately.  The  first  dynasty  was 
founded  by  King  Mena  about  4000  B.  C,  but  at 
this  time  their  civilization  was  thousands  of  years 
old,  being  far  more  ancient,  so  far  as  we  know, 
than  that  existing  at  any  other  region  on  earth. 

Inhabiting  East  Africa  from  the  Mediterranean  to 
the  equator  are  a  number  of  peoples  belonging  to 
the  Hamitic  stock,  which  constitute  the  East  African 
group.  Of  these  the  Bedjas  occupy  a  large  portion 
of  the  territory  between  the  Nile  and  the  Red  Sea, 
extending  into  upper  Egypt.  Physically  they  are 
considered  to  be  quite  a  well-developed  people.  The 
Daakal,  or  Afars,  inhabit  the  southerly  shores  of 
the  Red  Sea,  extending  as  far  as  the  Strait  of  Bab-el- 
Mandeb.  The  most  numerous  are  the  Gallas,  beinsf 
estimated,  according  to  Keane,  to  consist  of  ''from 
7,000,000  to  8,000,000,  spread  over  a  territory  of 
400,000  square  miles."  They  dwell  in  South  Ethio- 
pia, and  also  in  portions  of  Abyssinia.  Inhabiting 
this  region  are  also  the  Somali's.  They  are  described 
to  be  a  handsome,  well-developed  people.  Farther 
to  the  south  dwell  the  Massi,  and  other  tribes  which 
are  greatly  dreaded  by  the  negro  tribes  of  this  re- 
gion on  account  of  their  warlike  tendencies. 


134  THE    SEMITIC    STOCK. 

The  habits  of  all  of  these  people  are  nomadic;  they 
dwell  in  tents,  which  are  easily  shifted  from  place  to 
place.  Their  government  consists  of  small  commu- 
nities ruled  over  by  a  chief.  Very  little  attention  is 
given  to  agriculture  and  the  pursuits  of  peace. 

Many  of  the  East  African  tribes  show  signs  of 
admixture  with  the  Black  race,  or,  more  frequently, 
with  the  Semites. 

The  Semitic  stock  comprises  the  Arabian,  the 
Abyssinia7i  and  the  Chaldean.  They  all  occupy 
mainly  Western  Asia  and  portions  of  Eastern  Africa. 
They  are  more  bearded  than  the  Hamitic  peoples, 
but  beyond  this  perhaps  no  constant  physical  char- 
acteristic for  differentiation  can  be  found.  It  is  con- 
sidered, from  linguistic  evidence,  that  the  Hamites 
and  Semites  originally  developed  in  the  same  pri- 
meval home,  but  at  what  time  the  separation  and 
differentiation  occurred  is  at  present  a  matter  of 
conjecture. 

While  the  Semites  are  mentally  quite  clever  and 
original,  they  lack  that  perseverance  which  is  so 
necessary  for  permanent  progress.  They  appreciate 
the  beautiful  and  have  a  powerful  imagination;  but 
in  philosophy  and  science  they  have  made  very  lit- 
tle progress.  In  art  their  main  production  has  been 
in  glass,  pottery,  textile  fabrics  and  the  sculpture  of 
Assyria. 

The  Arabian  group,  as  the  name  indicates,  dwell 
in  the  great  peninsula  of  Arabia,  where,  for  thou- 
sands of  years,  they  have  roamed  this  great  coun- 
try, which  is  nearly  one-third  as  large  as  the  con- 
tinent of  Europe. 


THE    ABYSSINIANS.  I35 

The  Arab,  or  Bedouin,  recognizes  the  authority 
of  no  master.  Associations  of  kindred  are  con- 
tinued only  so  long  as  the  interests  and  companion- 
ships are  agreeable.  Where  dififerences  relative  to 
important  matters  arise,  a  friendly  separation  is 
mutually  decided  upon. 

Among  the  Arabs  close  matrimonial  alliances  of 
kinship  are  common.  The  Arab  ages  early,  at  forty 
years  of  age  becoming  gray,  and  at  sixty  he  is  old. 
While  his  period  of  life  is  short,  it  is  rarely  ham- 
pered with  disease.  From  infancy  he  is  accustomed 
to  endure  without  complaint.  He  is  accustomed  to 
live  out  of  doors,  sleeping  for  a  few  hours  on  the 
ground,  eating  sometimes  but  once  a  day  and  still 
enduring  physical  strain  without  complaint.  Friend- 
ship is  very  highly  prized  among  them,  and  the 
guest  is  considered  sacred  in  the  Arab  camp. 

The  Abyssinians  are  probably  descended  from 
ancestors  that  originally  came  from  Arabia.  At 
what  period  this  migration  occurred  is  unknown, 
but  it  was  certainly  long  prior  to  the  present  era. 
These  people,  unlike  the  Arabs,  cannot  pride  them- 
selves on  being  a  pure-blooded  race,  as  they  show 
unmistakable  evidences  of  racial  admixture  with  the 
blacks  and  other  ethnic  elements.  Their  features 
are  negroid,  their  hair  is  crispy,  and  the  color  of 
their  skin  is  brown.  The  soil  of  Abyssinia  is  fertile, 
and  the  inhabitants  are  devoted  mainly  to  agricul- 
ture and  manufacture. 

In  the  Chaldean  group  are  found  peoples  exhibit- 
ing elements  of  exceedingly  diverse  origin.  Here 
belong  the  Arme7na7ts,  the  Syrians,  the  Assyria ns, 


136         THE    NORTH    MEDITERRANEAN   BRANCH. 

the  Babylonians,  and  the  Jews.  From  very  early- 
times  intermingHngs  with  other  ethnic  groups 
occurred  among  these  peoples,  sometimes  evidently 
with  the  Hamites,  as  well  as  probably  with  peoples 
of  the  North  Mediterranean  branch. 

The  different  groups  comprising  those  members 
of  the  North  Mediterranean  branch  of  the  White 
race  do  not  show  the  uniformity  in  appearance, 
language  and  customs,  which  to  an  extent  so  largely 
characterizes  the  South  Mediterranean  branch. 
The  peoples  north  of  the  Mediterranean  have  de- 
veloped under  a  different  and  more  diverse  environ- 
ment and  hence  greater  differentiation  has  occurred, 
which  makes  the  relationship  of  these  populations 
much  more  obscure. 

The  North  Mediterranean  branch  comprises  the 
Basques,  the  Aryans,  and  the  Caucasic  peoples. 

The  Basques  form  one  of  the  most  isolated  groups 
of  people  found  in  Europe.  They  inhabit  both  sides 
of  the  Pyrenees,  on  the  frontiers  of  both  France 
and  Spain.  They  formerly  occupied  the  whole  of 
Spain  and  Southwest  France;  but  their  habitat  has 
since  become  restricted  by  wars  waged  with  other 
peoples,  particularly  by  the  Celts,  until  now  it  has 
been  estimated  they  do  not  exceed  300,000.  They 
formerly  spoke  Euscara,  and  called  themselves 
Euscaldunac.  By  the  old  geographers  they  were 
called  Ibernians.  The  early  history  of  the  Basques 
is  veiled  to  a  considerable  extent  in  obscurity. 
The  medieval  historians  refer  to  them  in  a  very  un- 
favorable manner,  and  the  pilgrims  eight  or  nine 
centuries  ago  dreaded  them  when  they  crossed  the 


THE    ARYANS.  I37 

Pyrenees,  in  which  region  they  were  largely  brig- 
ands. The  origin  of  the  Basques  is  unknown,  al- 
though it  is  certain  they  constitute  one  of  the  old- 
est, if  not  the  oldest,  groups  of  people  in  Europe. 
Their  language  possesses  characteristics  which  place 
it  among  the  primitive  forms  of  human  speech. 
Although  a  Basque  physical  type  is  denied,  there 
are,  nevertheless,  alleged  to  be  certain  physical  and 
linguistic  resemblances  which  would  seem  to  con- 
nect them  with  the  Berbers. 

The  Aryans  are  synonymously  referred  to  as  the 
Indo-European  or  Indo-Germanic  peoples.  Geo- 
graphically they  may  be  separated  into  an  eastern 
and  a  western  branch.  With  the  exception  of  the 
Basques,  the  Magyars,  the  Finns  and  the  Turks, 
they  constitute  the  inhabitants  of  Europe.  The 
eastern  branch  includes  the  inhabitants  of  Persia,  of 
Armenia,  of  Afghanistan,  and  of  North  Hindustan. 
The  relationship  of  the  peoples  inhabiting  these 
different  sections  of  country  has  been  established 
by  the  study  of  their  languages ;  but  none  of  the 
known  Aryan  tongues  can  be  said  to  be  the  orig- 
inal parent  stem  from  which  the  other  forms  were 
derived,  although  the  deduction  of  linguists  is  that 
a  people  did  at  one  time  exist  which  spoke  the 
Aryan  mother-tongue.  Says  Dr.  Isaac  Taylor: 
''The  origin  of  the  Aryan  languages  is  veiled  in  the 
remote  past,  and  the  causes  which  gave  rise  to  their 
divergences  must  be  to  a  great  extent  a  matter  for 
conjecture." 

It  was  formerly  considered  that  the  Aryans  orig- 
inated in  Asia  and  later  spread  into  Europe,  but  at 


138  ORIGIN    OF   THE    ARYANS. 

the  present  time  the  general  tendency  of  opinion 
among  ethnologists  seems  to  be  that  the  Aryans 
originated  in  Europe  and  later  extended  their  dis- 
tribution into  Asia.  We  know  that  Europe  has 
been  inhabited  by  man  from  those  remote  ages 
when  he  was  contemporaneous  with  the  cave  bear, 
the  mammoth,  the  rhinoceros  and  other  extinct 
forms.  It  is  also  reasonably  certain  that  Europe 
has  been  continuously  populated  since  that  early 
time,  and  it  is  supposed  the  present  inhabitants  are 
the  descendants  of  these  early  people. 

The  European  origin  of  the  Aryans,  Dr.  Brinton 
says,  was  first  advanced  by  the  Belgian  naturalist 
d'Omalius  d'Halloy  in  the  year  1839,  although  it  is 
generally  considered  to  be  due  to  the  work  of  the 
late  Dr.  Robert  G.  Latham  that  the  old  and  gen- 
erally accepted  behef  of  the  Asiatic  origin  was  first 
questioned.  Latham  maintained  in  the  year  1851 
that  a  European  origin  was  probable,  and  con- 
tended that  the  main  body  of  the  Aryans  were  in 
Europe,  while  in  Asia  a  small  detached  body  of 
them  are  found.  He  reasonably  maintained  that  it 
was  far  more  likely  that  the  smaller  body  had  come 
off  from  the  larger  rather  than  that  the  larger  had 
come  off  from  the  smaller.  Such  an  eminent 
scholar,  however,  as  Prof.  F.  Max  Miiller  writes  in 
1887:  ''If  an  answer  must  be  given  as  to  the  place 
where  our  Aryan  ancestors  dwelt  before  their  sep- 
aration, ...  I  should  still  say,  as  I  said  forty 
years  ago,  'Somewhere  in  x\sia,'  and  no  more." 

The  Aryan  linguistic  family  includes  ten  groups 
of  languages,  the  Hellenic,  the  Italic,  the  Celtic,  the 


THE    GREEKS.  I39 

Teutonic,  the  Slavonic,  the  Lithuanic,  the  Albanian, 
the  Armenian,  the  Iranic,  and  the  Indie.  The  first 
seven  of  these  were  the  languages  spoken  by  the 
Aryans  of  Europe,  and  the  last  three  were  the  lan- 
guages spoken  by  these  people  in  Asia. 

By  far  the  most  important  of  the  Hellenic  peo- 
ples were  the  ancient  Greeks.  It  is  likely  that  the 
separation  of  the  Greeks  from  the  Aryan  parent- 
stem  occurred  in  the  valley  of  the  Danube.  Their 
language  is  considered  to  present  strong  relation- 
ship to  the  ancient  Persian  and  Sanscrit,  and  also 
to  have  been  influenced  by  the  Semitic  and  Hamitic 
peoples.  Owing  to  the  comminglings  the  Greeks 
have  undergone  with  other  peoples,  their  physical 
and  linguistic  characteristics  have  become  greatly 
changed.  Mentally  these  people  were  in  many  re- 
spects far  superior  to  all  others  of  their  time.  In 
philosophy,  mathematics,  architecture,  mechanics, 
art  and  literature,  their  position  is  so  familiar  to  all 
that  comment  here  is  unnecessary. 

The  Italic  peoples  occupied  the  peninsula  of  Italy. 
In  the  north  were  the  Umbrians  ;  and  in  the  south 
the  Samnites  and  Latins,  or  Romans. 

The  Celtic  peoples  two  thousand  years  ago  were 
a  most  important  group  in  Central  and  Western 
Europe ;  their  living  representatives  are  the  High- 
land Scotch,  the  Irish,  the  Manx,  the  JVcIsh,  and 
the  natives  of  French  Brittany. 

The  Teutonic  peoples  in  ancient  times  included 
many  different  groups,  the  more  important  being 
the  Goths,  the  Vandals,  the  Angles,  and  Saxons, 
the  Danes,  the  Norsemen,  the  Fra7iks,  and  the  Lorn- 


140  THE    SLAVONIC    STOCK. 

bards.  These  divisions  are  made  on  linguistic  data, 
and  most  of  them  no  longer  exist.  The  Gothic 
language  is  no  longer  spoken.  In  Iceland  and  the 
Faroe  Islands,  however,  the  old  language  of  the 
Scandinavians  is  still  used,  and  on  the  continent  has 
given  origin  to  the  Dano-Norv^egian  and  the  Swed- 
ish. At  the  present  time  the  Teutonic  stock  of 
nations  may  be  divided  into  two  main  branches : 
the  Scandinavian,  including  the  Danes,  Swedes, 
Norwegians  and  Icelanders ;  and  the  Germanic, 
embracing  the  Germaiis  and  the  inhabitants  of 
Switzerland,  the  Netherlands,  the  Flemings  of  Bel- 
gium; also  the  descendants  of  the  Angles,  the 
Saxons  and  the  Jutes  in  Great  Britain,  together 
with  their  descendants,  the  English-speaking  people 
of  the  world. 

The  Slavonic  stock,  or  the  Slavs,  inhabited 
Europe  from  early  prehistoric  times.  The  earliest 
historic  notices  represent  them  as  inhabiting  the 
region  about  the  Carpathians,  from  which  section 
they  spread  northward  to  the  Baltic,  westward  to 
the  Elbe  and  the  Saal,  and,  after  the  overthrow  of 
the  Huns,  southward  to  the  Danube,  and  over  the 
peninsula  between  the  Adriatic  and  the  Black  Sea. 
They  are  represented  by  the  early  writers  as  an  in- 
dustrious people,  devoted  mainly  to  agriculture  and 
the  rearing  of  flocks  and  herds;  they  were  peaceful 
and  hospitable,  resorting  to  war  only  as  a  means  of 
defense  when  they  were  compelled  to  do  so.  The 
descendants  of  the  Slavs  living  at  the  present  time 
are  the  Russians,  the  Ruthenians,  the  Poles,  the 
Czechs,  the  Bulgarians,  and  the  Wends  or  Sorbs, 
dwelling  in  Saxony  and  Prussia. 


THE    INDIC    GROUP.  I4I 

The  Lithuania  stock,  which  includes  the  Letts, 
dwelling  on  the  shores  of  the  Baltic  Sea,  are  com- 
paratively few  in  number,  but  are  of  importance, 
mainly  on  account  of  the  fact  .that  they  are  supposed 
to  be  the  oldest  people  of  Aryac  stock  living  at  the 
present  time. 

The  Albanian  stock  inhabit  a  portion  of  Western 
Turkey  along  the  Adriatic  Sea.  Their  language  is 
said  to  represent  an  isolated  form  of  Aryan  speech. 
They  are  but  little  more  than  half  civilized,  and 
have  occupied  a  rather  inconspicuous  place  in  his- 
tory. The  Albanians  are  considered  to  be  de- 
scended from  the  ancient  Illyrians. 

The  Armenian  peoples  have  been  known  under 
this  name  since  the  time  of  Herodotus  and  prob- 
ably earlier,  but  their  early  history  is  largely  veiled 
in  obscurity.  The  modern  Armeiiia^is  are  found  in 
nearly  all  of  the  Turkish  provinces,  and  also  in 
Russia,  Persia  and  India. 

The  Iranic  peoples  in  ancient  times  comprised 
the  Baktrians  and  Persians.  Their  modern  repre- 
sentatives are  the  Persians,  some  of  the  tribes  of 
Afghanistan,  Luristan,  Kurdistan,  and  the  Ossetes, 
dwelling  in  the  valleys  of  the  Caucasus.  Many  of 
these  people  in  times  gone  by  occupied  important 
positions  in  the  history  of  the  race,  especially  the 
Baktrians,  whose  language  was  the  Zend. 

The  Indie  group  inhabit  an  extensive  region  of 
Southern  Asia,  which,  second  to  that  of  China,  is 
the  most  thickly  populated  area  on  earth.  It  has 
been  estimated  that  this  population  began  over 
4,000  years  ago.     The  earliest  form  of  Aryac  speech 


142  THE  CAUCASIC  PEOPLES. 

found  in  India  is  the  Vedic.  Later,  through  the 
cultivation  of  grammatical  and  phonetic  studies,  the 
Sanscrit  resulted.  At  present  there  are  many  dif- 
ferent tribes  and  castes  inhabiting  the  great  Indian 
peninsula,  the  forms  of  speech  spoken  by  them  pre- 
senting numerous  diversities.  Brahminism  and 
Buddhism  originated  in  India.  The  former  is  pan- 
theistic and  still  has  numerous  followers ;  the  latter 
is  theoretically  atheistic,  and  at  the  present  time 
has  more  adherents  than  any  other  religious  system. 
The  Caucasic  peoples  inhabit  mainly  the  Caucasus 
Mountains,  which  extend  from  the  Black  Sea  to  the 
Caspian;  the  general  direction  of  this  mountain 
range  is  west-northwest  to  east-southeast.  The 
length  is  about  750  miles,  extending  from  the 
Peninsula  of  Taman  on  the  Black  Sea,  to  the 
Peninsula  of  Apsheron  on  the  Caspian.  The  breadth 
is  about  150  miles,  but  that  of  the  higher  Caucasus 
is  not  over  70  miles.  This  region  is  Asiatic  in  char- 
acter, although  it  is  sometimes  referred  to  as  part 
of  the  boundary  between  Asia  and  Europe.  The 
higher  and  central  portions  of  this  range  are  con- 
nected by  a  series  of  elevated  plateaus,  which  are 
intersected  by  fissures  of  great  depth.  At  the  upper 
portion  of  the  range  these  mountains  diminish  in 
height,  those  along  the  shores  of  the  Black  Sea 
being  only  about  200  feet  high.  Some  portions  are 
without  forests,  while  other  regions  are  extensively 
covered  with  woods.  In  certain  portions  grain  is 
grown  at  a  height  of  8,000  feet,  and  in  the  lower 
valleys  rice,  tobacco  and  cotton  are  produced.  As 
might  be  expected,  the  climate  of  the  northern  and 
southern  slopes  differs  considerably. 


THE  CAUCASIC  PEOPLES.  I43 

The  term  Caucasian,  as  applied  to  the  inhabitants 
of  this  region,  was  introduced  by  Blumenbach,  who 
made  it  one  of  the  fundamental  ethnological  divi- 
sions of  mankind.  Later  ethnologists,  however,  do 
not  give  these  people  such  important  status,  but 
consider  them  to  be  merely  one  of  the  important 
divisions  of  the  North  Mediterranean  branch  of  the 
White  race.  The  name  Caucasian,  when  applied 
to  the  White  race  in  general,  is  clearly  a  mis- 
nomer, although  usage  has,  to  an  extent,  given  it 
sanction. 

The  Caucasus  has  been  occupied  by  man  since 
paleolithic  times,  as  is  recognized  from  human  re- 
mains which  have  been  found  in  a  cave  thirty  miles 
from  Kutais.  The  people  inhabiting  this  region  at 
the  present  time  present  great  diversities,  particu- 
larly linguistic  differences.  Many  of  the  languages 
spoken  are  totally  distinct  from  each  other,  and, 
with  a  single  exception,  do  not  present  affinities 
with  other  tongues.  When  the  Romans  endeavored 
to  explore  the  region  it  was  necessary  for  them  to 
obtain  the  assistance  of  seventy  interpreters.  The 
Lesghians,  the  Avars,  the  Galgat,  the  Kishi,  the 
Tiishi,  the  Karabtdaks,  the  Kurmi,  and  a  number 
of  other  tribes  occupy  Daghestan,  or  the  northern 
slope  of  the  eastern  Caucasus.  Their  westerly 
neighbors  comprise  the  Circassians,  the  Ahkhasians, 
the  Kabards,  the  Shapsiikhs,  and  others.  The 
Georgian  tribes  have  probably  the  oldest  culture, 
and  the  beauty  of  their  women  is  renowned.  The 
Ossetes  or  Ossetians  living  in  the  centre  of  the  Cau- 
casus, on  the  slopes  about  Kazbek,  are  considered 
to  be  a  people  of  Aryan  origin. 


CHAPTER  VL 


THE    INSULAR   PEOPLES. 


Contents.— The  Malays.  The  Hovas.  The  Polynesians.  The 
Maoris.  The  Tongas.  The  Tahitians.  The  Pomotonans. 
The  Marquesans.  Inhabitants  of  the  Philippine  Islands.  The 
Tagalas.  The  Bisayas.  The  Ilocanes.  The  Pampangos.  The 
Igorrotes.  The  Tingianes.  The  Apayos.  The  Bogobos.  The 
Samals.  The  Andamanese.  The  Papuans.  The  Fijians.  The 
Melanesians.     Australia  and  the  Australians.     The  Tasmanians. 

'pHE  many  islands  of  the  great  oceans  are  inhab- 
1  ited  by  various  peoples,  sometimes  presenting 
great  diversities  and  showing  evidences  of  various 
ethnic  relationship,  but  as  a  rule  resembling  most 
closely  those  races  inhabiting  the  continent  they  are 
geographically  nearest  to. 

The  Malays  inhabit  the  peninsula  of  Malacca,  the 
islands  of  Java,  Borneo,  Sumatra  and  the  Celebes, 
and  are  found,  in  fact,  on  almost  all  of  the  islands 
from  Madagascar  to  Eastern  Island.  Through  all 
of  this  great  area  they  present  physical  and  linguistic 
affinities  which  bind  them  all  together  in  one  large 
group  and  indicate  for  them  one  common  origin. 

The  average  Malay  is  of  medium  stature,  with  a 
rather  lithe  and  active  body;  the  eyes  are  somewhat 
oblique,  the  cheek  bones  are  prominent,  the  nose 
is  rather  fiat,  the  hair  is  black,  and  the  beard  is 
scanty.  The  complexion  varies  from  an  olive  shade 
to  a  brown  color.     The  Malay  type  may  be  said  to 

(144) 


THE    MALAYS.  145 

possess  such  characteristics  as  to  at  once  identify  it 
as  being  Mongoloid  in  character. 

In  their  habits  the  Malays  may  be  energetic  or 
indolent.  They  are  reckless,  careless  and  cruel, 
having  very  little  interest  in  civilization,  and  place 
very  little  value  on  human  life  or  property.  They 
are  very  revengeful,  and  have  neither  honor  nor 
gratitude,  and  are  without  respect  for  veracity.  The 
Malay,  however,  has  considerable  intelligence,  and 
his  love  of  gold  has  made  him  a  daring  navigator, 
his  expeditions  frequently  combining  the  duties  of 
explorer,  merchant  or  pirate,  just  as  circumstances 
may  develop. 

The  island  of  Madagascar  is  inhabited  by  three 
groups  of  people,  the  Hovas,  the  Malagasies  and 
the  Sakalavas.  The  Hovas  occupy  Imerina;  they 
are  savages,  or  at  the  best  barbarians ;  some  of  them 
are  agriculturists,  while  others  among  them  are 
shepherds  and  traders.  They  are  generally  consid- 
ered to  be  of  Malay  stock,  but  as  to  this  there  is 
much  difference  of  opinion.  Dr.  Deniker  considers 
that  the  Hovas  arri\ed  in  Madagascar  only  seven  or 
eight  centuries  ago,  but  what  evidence  there  is  to 
support  such  an  opinion  he  does  not  state.  The 
Malagasies  inhabit  especially  the  east  coast  region 
of  the  island,  and  they  are  all  decidedly  negroid  in 
character.  The  Sakalavas  are  quite  generally  dis- 
tributed over  the  island,  and  many  different  tribes 
of  them  are  recognized  all  of  which  vary  more  or 
less  in  character  and  culture,  from  savagery  to  bar- 
barism. Many  and  divergent  have  been  the  views 
expressed  as  to  when  and  from  whence  Madagascar 

lO 


146  THE    MALAYS. 

was  first  populated  by  human  beings,  and  it  seems 
to  be  exceedingly  doubtful  that  the  time  will  ever 
be  even  very  closely  approximated. 

The  coast  region  of  Borneo  has  for  centuries  been 
occupied  by  Malays,  except  in  the  northeastern  part 
where  the  Bajans,  the  Sulus,  and  the  Illanuns 
dwell.  The  interior  of  the  island  is  inhabited  by 
the  Dyaks,  which  occupy  a  very  inferior  position  in 
the  scale  of  human  development.  Many  of  their 
customs  are  very  curious,  and  some  of  them  are 
very  revolting.  They  are  ''  head-hunters  ''  and  can- 
nibals, it  being  considered  among  them  that  the 
greatest  trophy  of  war  is  to  bring  home  the  head  of 
the  dead  enemy.  They  dwell  in  the  communal  state, 
and  their  religion  is  idolatry,  their  gods  being  made 
of  wood.  The  Dyaks  practice  different  forms  of 
self-mutilation,  such  as  lengthening  their  ear-lobes, 
filling  their  teeth,  and  extracting  their  eyebrows. 
Human  sacrifice  is  also  practiced  by  these  people. 
Some  of  them  give  attention  to  agriculture. 

Linguistically  the  Malays  may  be  separated  from 
the  Asiatic  Mongolians,  as  all  of  their  languages 
belong  to  the  Malayo-Polynesian  family,  extending 
across  the  Indian  and  the  Pacific  Oceans  from 
Madagascar  to  Easter  Island,  and  from  New  Zealand 
north  to  the  Hawaiian  Islands. 

The  island  of  Sumatra  is  peopled  by  the  inde- 
pendent tribes  of  the  Battas  dwelling  in  the  north  ; 
and  the  Kubu,  and  the  Ltibu,  in  the  south.  All  of 
these  people  are  savages,  and  most  of  them  are 
cannibals,  although  they  do  devote  some  of  their 
time  to  agricultural  pursuits.     The  coast  region  of 


THE    POLYNESIANS.  I47 

the  island  is  occupied  by  various  tribes,  some  of 
them  being  the  Menangkaban,  the  Achinese,  the 
Palenbangs,  the  Rejangs,  the  Passtonahs,  and  also 
the  Malays. 

In  the  western  portion  of  the  island  of  Java  dwell 
the  Sundancse.  and  in  the  eastern  portion  are  the 
Jaz'ajiese.  Both  of  these  peoples  possess  consider- 
able intelligence.  The  ancient  language  of  the 
Javanese  was  the  Kavi,  wdiich  is  to  an  extent  pre- 
served in  their  sacred  books.  Over  2000  years  ago 
it  is  considered  that  they  had  adopted  some  form  of 
the  Hindu  religion,  and  under  the  instruction  of 
Hindu  teachers  they  became  more  cultured.  The 
natives  of  Java  are  well-known  in  the  east  as  accom- 
plished musicians. 

The  Polynesian  or  South  Sea  Islands  are  dis- 
tributed over  a  large  territory  stretching  over  a  hun- 
dred degrees  of  longitude,  from  New  Britain  to  East- 
tern  Island,  and  across  seventy  degrees  of  latitude, 
from  Hawaii  to  Stewart's  Island.  The  people  inhabit- 
ing these  many  islands,  probably  from  prehistoric 
times,  are  known  as  Polynesians.  They  are  tall 
in  stature,  and  are  proportionally  well  developed. 
The  complexion  is  olive,  varying  to  brown.  The 
features  may  be  said  to  be  expressive,  with  a  rather 
high  forehead  and  dark  eyes;  the  mouth  is  well 
proportioned  and  the  teeth  are  well  developed. 
They  have  long,  straight,  black  hair.  The  languages 
spoken  by  them  present  strong  relationships  to  the 
Malayan,  and  their  traditions  point  to  the  west  as 
the  direction  from  which  their  ancestors  came.  That 
other  blood  besides  that  of  the  Malay  is  present  in 
them  cannot  be  doubted. 


148  THE    POLYNESIANS. 

In  some  respects  the  Polynesians  can  be  consid- 
ered to  be  an  improvement  over  the  Malays ;  they 
are  more  trustworthy.  They  build  canoes  and  are 
excellent  navigators.  They  catch  fish,  but  do  very 
little  hunting.  They  depend  also  on  the  cocoanut 
groves  and  certain  tuberous  plants,  as  the  sweet 
potato  and  the  taro.  Their  domestic  animals  are 
the  dog  and  the  pig,  both  of  which  were  probably 
introduced  at  a  comparatively  recent  date.  Their 
weapons  of  war  consisted  of  the  spear,  the  sling  and 
the  war-club;  their  implements  of  stone  were  pol- 
ished. Cooking  was  largely  done  by  means  of 
heated  stones.  Their  dwellings  were  usually  built 
of  brush  and  leaves,  although  on  some  of  the  islands 
stone  buildings  have  been  found. 

The  religion  of  the  Polynesians  is  polytheistic, 
and  they  worship  the  powers  of  nature  personified. 
The  ''taboo"  is  an  important  matter  with  them; 
the  word  expresses  an  interdiction,  the  object  struck 
being  supposed  to  at  once  be  placed  under  the  con- 
trol of  a  divinity. 

The  inhabitants  of  all  of  the  different  groups  of 
islands,  while  all  closely  related,  vary  more  or  less 
in  habits  and  customs.  One  of  the  most  important 
of  these  people  were  the  Maoris,  of  New  Zealand. 
The  Friendly  Islands  were  inhabited  by  the  To7tgas. 
Other  islands  were  populated  by  the  Tahitians,  the 
Pomotonans,  the  Marquesans  and  others. 

The  Philippine  Islands  comprise  an  archipelago 
of  over  two  thousand  islands  of  various  sizes,  from 
mere  rocks  to  large  islands  the  size  of  Luzon  and 
Mindanao.     This  archipelago  extends  nearly  north 


INHABITANTS    OF    THE    PHILIPPINES.  I49 

and  south,  and  is  situated  in  4^-21°  north  latitude 
and  117^-127°  east  longitude.  The  islands  are 
mountainous  and  volcanic. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  Philippine  Islands  are  of 
mixed  blood  of  diverse  ethnic  elements,  so  that  the 
problem  of  tracing  these  people  to  their  original 
primitive  stocks  becomes  a  very  difficult  matter. 
A.  H.  Keane,  quoting  Dr.  Montano  and  Professor 
Blumentritt,  considers  that  the  original  primitive 
population  of  this  archipelago  consisted  of  Negritos; 
afterwards,  still,  however,  in  prehistoric  times,  a 
Malay  invasion  occured,  and  this  intermingling  con- 
tinued until  the  arrival  of  the  Spaniards  in  the  six- 
teenth century;  following  them,  and  possibly  pre- 
ceding them,  were  the  Chinese,  and  it  is  also 
probable  that  at  various  times  there  has  been  an 
introduction  of  Polynesian  blood. 

The  tribes  inhabiting  this  region  are  numerous 
and  of  various  names,  some  of  the  important  ones 
being  the  Tagalas,  the  Bisayas,  the  Ilocanes,  the 
Pajiipangos,  the  Igorrotes,  the  Tingianes,  the  Apa- 
yos,  the  Bogobos  and  the  Sainah. 

As   to   the  number  of   inhabitants   in  the  Philip- 
pines,  Prof.   Dean  C.  Worcester  says:    "The  total 
population    of    the    archipelago    is     not    definitel)' 
known,  as  census  returns  are  necessarily  inaccurate 
but   it    is    usually  estimated    at    from    eight   to    ten 
millions.      It  is  divided  between  more    than  eighty 
distinct   tribes,   which,   for  purposes    of   discussion 
may  be  conveniently  grouped  as  Negritos,  Moham 
medan  Malays,  pagan  Malays,  and  civilized  IMalays.' 

The  Andaman  Islands,  which  are  situated  in  the 


150  THE    ANDAMANESE. 

eastern  portion  of  the  Bay  of  Bengal,  are  a  thickly- 
wooded  group,  and  are  inhabited  by  a  people  known 
as  the  Andamaftese.  They  belong  to  the,  lower 
type  of  human  development.  In  height  they  are 
usually  below  five  feet ;  their  complexion  varies 
from  a  dark  brown  to  a  black;  their  hair  is  crisp 
and  woolly ;  they  are  beardless,  and  have  very  little 
hair  distributed  over  the  body.  They  have  no 
settled  abodes,  but  go  from  island  to  island,  living 
upon  fruits,  fish,  and  the  products  of  the  chase. 
They  present  the  essential  characteristics  of  the 
Negrito,  and  have  been  described  by  Flower  as 
presenting  an  infantile  negro  type. 

They  are  essentially  of  the  same  temperament  as 
are  the  other  insular  peoples  which  are  related  to 
the  true  African  blacks.  Our  knowledge  as  to  their 
religious  beliefs  is  very  vague,  but  it  seems  that 
they  believe  in  a  supreme  being,  which  is  considered 
by  them  to  reside  in  a  large  stone  house  in  the  sky, 
and  who  possesses  a  universal  knowledge  of  all 
things  during  the  daylight.  At  night  all  objects 
are  possessed,  and  their  destinies  are  controlled  by 
other  supreme  beings.  There  are  a  number  of 
tribal  groups  among  the  Andamanese,  and  each 
speaks  a  different  modification  of  their  language ; 
their  languages  in  general  are  not  considered  to 
show  any  positive  affinities  with  any  other  tongue. 

The  Papuans  inhabit  New  Guinea,  the  Pelew  and 
Solomon  Islands,  the  New  Hebrides,  New  Caledo- 
nia and  the  Fiji  group.  A  characteristic  feature 
presented  by  the  Papuans  is  their  great  quantity  of 
black,  long,  wooly  hair,  which  grows  more  or  less 


THE    PAPUANS.  I5I 

over  the  arms,  breasts  and  legs,  but  which  is  par- 
ticularly abundant  on  the  head  and  face.  Their  lips 
are  thick,  their  nostrils  are  broad,  and  their  legs  are 
thin.  The  color  of  their  skin  varies  from  dark 
brown  to  black.  In  different  portions  of  their  habi- 
tat they  present  considerable  variation  and  are  gen- 
erally considered  to  be  of  mixed  blood. 

The  Papuans  of  Xew  Guinea  occupy  a  low  stage 
of  development,  and  are  noisy,  talkative,  inquisitive, 
and  of  a  restless  disposition.  In  color  they  vary 
from  a  coal-black  to  a  dark  brown ;  they  have  wooly 
hair,  and  there  is  a  considerable  quantity  of  it  on 
the  body  and  face.  They  are  on  an  average  of  me- 
dium stature  and  their  legs  are  thin.  The  physiog- 
nomy of  the  Papuans  varies  considerably.  In  occu- 
pation some  are  hunters  and  fishers  and  others  are 
tillers  of  the  soil.  Their  small  boats  are  well  con- 
structed, and  in  the  navigation  of  them  they  are 
quite  expert.  They  are  all  exceedingly  supersti- 
tious, and  the  various  noises  of  the  forest  are  con- 
sidered to  be  associated  with  various  spirits. 

In  Xew  Guinea,  the  Fiji  Islands  and  New  Cale- 
donia they  cook  in  earthen  vessels.  The  Fijians 
are  familiar  with  the  art  of  dyeing  and  stamping 
their  clothing.  When  the  Dutch  sailors  furnished 
the  natives  of  Humboldt's  Bay,  in  New  Guinea, 
with  pencil  and  paper,  they  were  able  to  draw  fishes 
and  birds  very  satisfactorily.  They  were  familiar 
with  the  bow  and  arrow.  The  agriculture  of  these 
Papuans  consisted  mainly  in  the  cultivation  of  the 
bread-fruit  tree,  which  they  grow  in  their  fields  and 
gardens,    enclosed    by   fences.      These    people   have 


152  THE    MELANESIANS. 

been  well  spoken  of  for  their  chastity  and  morality, 
also  for  their  parental  and  filial  affection,  but  in 
parts  of  New  Guinea,  New  Caledonia  and  the  Fiji 
Islands  cannibalism  is  indulged  in.  They  are  strong 
believers  in  a  future  life,  and  man  is  supposed  by 
them  to  continue  the  work  in  the  next  life  which  he 
abandoned  in  this.  Their  languages  are  said  to  be 
agglutinating. 

The  Fijians  are  considered  to  be  the  best  devel- 
oped people  among  the  Papuans,  this  being  due 
primarily,  perhaps,  to  Polynesian  influence.  They 
are  polite  and  polished  conversationalists,  and  have 
a  strong  feeling  of  national  pride.  Their  mythology 
is  rich.  They  worship  the  dead,  and  the  serpent  is 
symbolic  of  the  creator  of  the  earth.  Their  pottery 
in  red  and  blue  clay  is  exquisite.  Their  boats  some- 
times exceed  one  hundred  feet  in  length,  and  are 
fitted  with  masts  and  sails.  Their  villages  are  forti- 
fied, and  food  said  to  be  suf^cient  to  last  for  a  period 
of  four  years  is  stored  up. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  New  Hebrides,  New  Cale- 
donia and  the  Fiji  Islands  are  sometimes  referred  to 
as  Melanesians,  and  all  of  these  people  present  more 
or  less  evidence  of  a  mixed  type,  especially  eastward, 
where  Polynesian  relationship  becomes  easily  recog- 
nizable. In  stature  they  are  generally  taller  than 
the  Papuans,  and  their  skull  is  more  dolichocephalic, 
although  there  is  considerable  variation.  In  color 
they  vary  from  the  black  of  the  Negro  to  the  yellow 
of  the  Malay.  Their  hair  is  usually  wooly,  although 
sometimes  straight  hair  is  observed  among  them. 
All  of  these  characteristics  indicate  quite  a  mixed 


THE    MELANESIANS.  153 

relationship.      The    Melanesians    are    in    occupation 
devoted  mainly  to  agriculture,  cultivating   particu- 
larly the  yam  and  the  taro.     They  build  their  small, 
artistically-decorated    houses    on    piles;    but    com- 
munal residences  are  also  used  ;  and  in  New  Cale- 
donia they  dwell  in  circular  tents.     Their  weapons 
consist  of  the  bow   and  arrow,   the    club,   and    the 
spear.     They  also  make  weapons  and  tools  of  stone, 
wood,  shells,  and  human  bones.     Occasionally  they 
make  pottery.     Their  canoes,  which  may  be  either 
single   or   double,   are  well    and    shapely  built,   but 
they  do  not  take  long  voyages.     Melanesian  women 
are  said  to  be  chaste  and  modest.     Their  religion  is 
principally  a  form  of   ancestral  worship,   and    they 
have  a  custom  of  preserving  the  skulls  of  their  dead. 
The  languages  of  the  Melanesians,  like  their  phys- 
ical characteristics,  present  much  variation,  and  this 
also  indicates   that  they  are  a  mixed  people.     Not 
merely   do    the   inhabitants    of   the    various    islands 
speak   different    languages,    but    also    in    the    same 
island  different  dialects  and  also  different  languages 
are  sometimes  spoken. 

The  largest  island  in  existence,  and  which  is  fre- 
quently referred  to  as  a  continent,  is  Australia.  In 
area  it  is  nearly  twenty-five  times  as  large  as  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland.  This  land  is  described  as  be- 
ing exceedingly  compact,  and  on  the  eastern  and 
western  shores  presents  an  almost  unbroken  out- 
line. The  absence  of  rivers  of  importance  com- 
municating between  the  ocean  and  the  interior  of 
the  island  is  characteristic,  and  has,  without  doubt, 
affected    greatly    the    distribution    of    life     in    this 


154  THE    AUSTRALIANS. 

region.  Australia  lies  almost  wholly  within  the 
temperate  zone,  and,  as  a  rule,  enjoys  a  most 
equable  climate,  although  at  times  there  are  great 
irregularities,  due  largely  to  the  variability  in  the 
rainfall  in  all  parts  of  this  island-continent.  At 
times  there  are  periods  of  drought,  and  at  other 
times  there  are  seasons  of  flood.  The  flora  of  this 
region  is  extensive  and  characteristic,  there  having 
been  described  up  to  the  present  time  about  8,000 
species  of  plants,  considerably  more  than  has  been 
found  in  the  whole  of  Europe.  The  animals  here 
found  constitute  the  most  unique  group  at  present 
living.  Those  forms  of  mammals  common  in  other 
regions  are  here  totally  wanting,  while  those  pouch- 
bearing  mammals,  the  marsupials,  are  well  repre- 
sented. Another  group  characteristic  of  Australia 
is  the  order  Monotremata,  which  includes  that 
curious  animal,  the  Duck-bill. 

As  the  plants  and  animals  of  this  land  are  to  an 
extent  isolated  and  peculiar,  so  are  the  human  in- 
habitants to  a  lesser  extent  characteristic.  Physical 
conditions  which  are  favorable  for  the  development 
of  such  peculiar  types  in  the  lower  forms  of  animals 
certainly  were  not  conducive  to  the  improvement  of 
man. 

In  height  the  Australian  is  slightly  below  the 
average  European,  but  is  of  a  slighter  and  feebler 
build ;  the  lower  extremities  are  poorly  developed, 
and  the  muscles  of  the  calf  of  the  leg  are  small. 
The  skull,  as  a  rule,  is  dolichocephalic.  The  nose 
comes  from  a  narrow  base,  but  broadens  out.  The 
cheek-bones  are  high.     The  mouth  is  large,  and  the 


THE    AUSTRALIANS.  155 

teeth  are  well  developed,  the  third  molars  frequently 
possessing  three  separate  fangs.  The  complexion 
is  described  to  be  of  a  dark  coffee-brown  color. 
The  whole  person,  and  especially  the  head  and  face, 
is  covered  with  a  profuse  growth  of  hair. 

While  the  Australians  probably  owe  their  origin 
to  several  ethnic  influences,  the  dominant  and  fund- 
amental characteristics  in  them  seem  to  be  negroid, 
although  they  differ  in  the  character  of  their  hair, 
which  is  not  woolly  nor  frizzly,  but  rather  curly, 
wavy  and  sometimes  bushy.  Relative  to  them  Prof. 
F.  Ratzel  says:  "In  their  cast  of  features  may  be 
recognized  an  intermediate  stage  between  negroes 
and  ]\Ialays,  what  is  called  a  hybrid  physiognomy. 
We  are  reminded  of  the  ^lalay  by  the  straight 
rather  than  woolly  hair,  the  prominent  cheek-bones, 
the  light  brown  or  reddish  tint  of  the  skin ;  of  the 
negro  by  the  prominent  eyebrows,  the  flat  nose,  the 
thick  lips,  the  prognathous  jaws." 

Although  there  may  be  some  certain  minor  differ- 
ences the  Australians  present  great  uniformity  in 
their  physical  characteristics.  This  is  also  indicated 
by  their  languages  which  all  belong  to  the  same 
linguistic  group,  and  which  seem  to  have  no 
affinity  with  any  other  linguistic  group.  These 
languages  are  agglutinative,  and  by  the  addition  of 
suffixes  the  words  are  variously  modified.  Among 
the  Australians,  particularly  between  the  different 
tribes,  gesture  language  is  sometimes  used.  Their 
intellectual  development  is  generally  considered  to 
be  quite  low. 

The     energies     of    the     native    Australians    were 


156  THE    AUSTRALIANS. 

mainly  directed  to  gaining  food  for  their  suste- 
nance. They  exhibit  great  skill  in  tracking  and 
running  down  their  prey,  and  while  their  weapons 
are  primitive,  consisting  mainly  of  the  spear  and 
the  boomerang,  they  are  quite  well  adapted  for  their 
purposes.  The  Australian  has  no  architecture,  very 
little  weaving,  no  pottery,  and  hardly  any  religion. 
His  art  is  limited  to  a  few  crude  drawings  of  ani- 
mals on  the  rocks  and  in  the  caves.  When  Australia 
first  became  known  to  Europeans  the  natives  seem 
to  have  been  in  the  paleolithic  stone  age.  The 
man  is  absolute  owner  of  the  woman  in  their  soci- 
ety, buying  and  selling  her  as  he  would  his  spear  or 
boomerang.  The  old  and  infirm  are  abandoned  to 
their  fate,  and  cannibalism  is  common.  They  live 
mainly  in  roving  tribes,  and,  except  for  a  few  loose 
family  ties,  there  is  no  government.  Their  language 
is  primitive,  and  their  vocabulary,  while  small,  is 
fairly  well  expressive.  They  are  said  to  acquire 
words  from  foreign  languages  with  facility.  Sick- 
ness and  death  are  supposed  to  be  caused  by  evil 
spirits,  and  the  sorcery  of  the  priest  or  magician  is 
frequently  resorted  to.  It  is  considered  that  a  man 
that  dies  in  battle,  or  is  unburied  in  a  field,  becomes 
an  evil  spirit.  Food  is  sometimes  placed  on  the 
graves  of  the  dead,  and  ceremonies  of  mourning  are 
sometimes  carried  out.  Sometimes  the  dead  are 
burned.  While  their  culture  is  primitive,  it  is  im- 
portant to  note  that  they  have  a  conception  of  writing 
in  their  "message  sticks,"  on  which  they  incise  a 
series  of  notches,  lines  and  figures,  and  thus  send 
information.     Their  hospitality,  as  exhibited  by  the 


THE    TASMAXIAXS.  I57 

half-Starved  tribes  of  Cooper's  Creek  to  the  last 
survivor  of  Burke's  expedition,  should  always  be 
kindly  remembered. 

The  aborigines  of  Tasmania  are  now  an  extinct 
people;  the  last  male  died  in  the  year  1869,  and  the 
last  female  in  1876. 

They  were  so  far  as  anthropologists  are  able  to 
determine  never  a  very  numerous  people :  it  having 
been  estimated  that  probably  they  never  exceeded 
5000  individuals,  although,  necessarily,  this  is  prob- 
lematical. They  first  became  known  to  the  White 
race  through  the  early  French  explorers,  and,  later, 
the  early  English  settlers.  The  Tasmanians  were 
not  at  all  reconciled  to  the  advances  made  into  their 
territory  by  the  Europeans,  and  hence  the  cruel  and 
bloody  war  of  extermination  of  the  natives  began. 
In  the  year  1830  an  effort  was  made  to  save  them 
from  extinction,  and  many  of  them  were  induced  to 
come  into  a  settlement  where  they  were  provided 
for ;  but  the  effort  was  made  too  late,  and  hence 
these  people  have  slowly  but  surely  faded  from  the 
face  of  the  earth.  The  Tasmanians  were  of  a  most 
inferior  type  of  humanity,  being  savage,  treacherous 
and  untamable.  Evidence  seems  to  indicate,  almost 
without  doubt,  that  they  were  the  same  people  as 
the  Australians,  only,  if  possible,  occupying  a  lower 
stage  of  development  anrl  a  different  geographical 
position. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  CULTURE. 

Contents.— The  early  condition  of  man,  physically  and  mentally. 
His  necessities.  Origin  of  culture.  Implements  and  weapons, 
paleolithic  and  neolithic.  Food.  Fire.  Language.  Writing. 
Environment. 

IT  is  exceedingly  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  for  us 
to  conceive  of  the  many  difficulties  and  adversi- 
ties which  must  have  beset  primitive  man  at  the 
time  of  his  origin  or  of  his  differentiation  as  man. 
Entirely  without  any  of  the  later  methods  which 
served  for  the  accomplishment  of  his  necessities, 
comforts,  and  advantages,  early  man  surpassed  those 
animals  with  which  he  was  contemporaneous  in 
mainly  one  important  particular,  and  that  was  in 
the  development  of  his  brain. 

He  was  superior  mentally  in  all  respects  to  the 
lower  animals,  and  this  single  point  of  superiority, 
along  with  the  structural  development  of  the  human 
hand,  gave  him  the  great  advantage  which  he  has 
since  maintained  and  increased,  and  which  has  re- 
sulted in  the  great  progress  made  by  the  human 
species  in  all  of  its  various  aspects  of  development. 

In  the  origin  and  development  of  any  special  line 
of  culture  among  any  people,  there  are,  it  seems 
to  me,  two  important  factors  or  causes  in  sug- 
gesting and  developing  that  culture,  to  which,  so 
far  as  I  know,  attention  has  not  been  previously 
directed.     These    are,    internally,   the    mind    itself, 

(158) 


PRIMITIVE    CULTURE.  1 59 

which  must  be  sufficiently  developed  to  recognize 
hat  it  is  possible  to  invent  new  methods  for  the 
accomplishment  of  particular  purposes;  and,  ex- 
ternally, the  environment  which  suggests  and  ren- 
ders this  accomplishment  possible  or  necessary. 
Without  either  capable  mind  or  suitable  environ- 
ment culture  cannot  develop,  and,  conversely,  with 
capable  mind  and  suitable  environment  culture  will 
inevitably  result,  and  it  is  not  at  all  remarkable  that 
it  does  so. 

The  earliest  members  of  the  human  family  per- 
haps lived  in  the  forests  near  or  in  the  tropical 
regions  of  the  old  world.  Their  homes  were  prob- 
ably in  caves,  or  under  trees,  or  protruding  rocks, 
or  any  other  location  which  might  afTord  them 
shelter  from  the  elements  and  animals  with  which 
they  were  contemporaneous ;  many  of  the  latter, 
without  doubt,  made  the  life  of  man  most  hazardous. 

Food  and,  possibly,  clothing  were  among  his 
earliest  necessities ;  the  former  being  of  course  im- 
perative, and  the  latter  adopted  as  climatic  condi- 
tions and  purposes  of  personal  adornment  might 
suggest.  The  quest  for  food  must  at  times  have 
been  severe.  As  to  the  character  of  food  preferred 
by  primitive  man  we  cannot  tell,  except,  we  do 
know  that  man  at  the  present  time  prefers  and 
seems  usually  to  prosper  best  on  a  mixed  diet  of 
both  animal  and  vegetable  food,  and  as  nearly  as 
can  be  determined  this  has  been  the  character  of 
diet  used  from  the  earliest  times  of  human  existence. 

Agriculture,  of  course,  at  this  time  had  probably 
not   even    begun,   and    such   vegetable   products  as 


l6o  PRIMITIVE    IMPLEMENTS. 

were  utilized  as  dietetic  articles  must  have  been 
selected  rather  promiscuously,  guided  probably  very 
largely  by  the  sense  of  taste.  It  is  likely  that  ani- 
mal food  was  depended  largely  upon,  and  the  ob- 
taining of  it  must  necessarily  have  been  one  of  the 
most  important  industries  of  primitive  man.  Vari- 
ous snares,  such  as  traps  and  pitfalls,  were  probably 
used  to  capture  animals.  Weapons  of  offense  and 
defense  were  likewise  resorted  to,  many  of  them 
being  the  inception  of  those  which,  variously  modi- 
fied and  improved  upon,  are  still  in  use  at  the  pres- 
ent time.  The  first  weapon  used  by  man  was  prob- 
ably a  stone  or  a  stick  or  a  club  wielded  or  thrown 
by  the  hand  and  arm.  The  latter  method,  that  is, 
of  throwing,  constituted  an  advancement  confined 
to  man,  for  man  is  the  only  animal  that  can  intelli- 
gently attack  an  enemy  without  coming  into  direct 
contact  with  it,  as  is  the  case  when  weapons  are 
used.  The  only  possible  exception  that  can  be  taken 
to  this  is,  that  it  has  been  alleged  that  some  of  the 
anthropoid  apes  have  been  observed  to  defend  them- 
selves by  the  throwing  of  missiles. 

Man  has  been  designated  by  some  to  be  a  "tool- 
using  animal,"  and  in  this  particular  he  differs  from 
all  of  the  lower  animals. 

The  most  primitive  form  of  implement  is  one  that 
has  been  formed  by  natural  agencies  other  than 
man,  but  which  at  the  same  time  may  be  used  by 
man  as  either  a  weapon  of  defense  or  offense.  This 
is  well  illustrated,  as  we  have  just  seen,  by  the  stick, 
club  or  stone  hurled  from  the  hand  at  the  object  of 
attack. 


PRIMITIVE    IMPLEMENTS.  l6l 

In  the  evolution  of  defense  and  attack  probably 
the  first  of  all  weapons  were  sticks  and  stones.  If 
the  stick  were  a  heavy  one  it  became  a  cudgel;  if  it 
were  knobbed  on  one  end  it  constituted  a  club  or 
so-called  war-club,  which  is  such  an  important 
weapon  among  all  primitive  peoples,  and  from 
which  evolved  the  spear  used  by  various  savages, 
and  which  compares  very  favorably  with  the  bayo- 
nets used  by  modern  civilized  warriors  in  piercing 
down  those  who  differ  from  them  on  some  political 
question. 

Man  at  the  earliest  period  of  his  existence  prob- 
ably used  many  stone  weapons  and  implements. 
The  earliest  of  this  character  would  be  a  stone  of 
convenient  size  and  shape  which  could  be  hurled  at 
an  enemy,  or  others  which  could  be  conveniently 
used  in  grinding  his  food,  or  for  making  and  sharp- 
ening other  implements  of  wood  and  stone  in  such 
ways  that  different  utilitarian  purposes  might  be 
accomplished  by  them.  Stone  was  used  to  chip 
stone,  and  suitable  portions  were  bound  tightly  to 
the  end  of  sticks,  thus  improving  on  the  primitive 
war-club,  and  resulting  in  the  devising  of  the 
hatchet,  the  hammer,  the  axe  and  the  tomahawk  of 
the  American  Indians. 

The  implement  of  this  character,  possessing  a 
sharp  edge  adapted  for  cutting,  shows  a  higher 
development  than  the  one  merely  adapted  for  hit- 
ting or  hammering,  and  illustrates  those  imple- 
ments which  by  archaeologists  are  termed  chipped, 
and  which  are  of  such  great  interest  to  those  study- 
ing the  remains  of  the  workmanship  of  early  man. 
II 


l62      NEOLITHIC  AND  PALEOLITHIC  IMPLEMENTS. 

This  method  of  chipping  and  flaking  stones  is  the 
foundation  of  stone  implement-making  which  has 
been  so  universally  employed  by  the  various  peoples 
of  the  world  at  different  periods  of  their  early  de- 
velopment. These  implements  have  been  found  in 
the  gravel  deposits  of  the  quaternary  period,  and 
were  used  by  the  oldest  known  of  all  peoples  in- 
habiting Europe. 

At  a  later  period  of  human  development  these 
implements  were  not  merely  chipped,  but  were  also 
polished,  and  thus  evolved  the  so-called  neolithic 
stone  implements,  the  older  non-polished  imple- 
ments being  denominated  paleolithic. 

At  a  later  period  various  peoples  became  ac- 
quainted with  some  of  the  metals,  and  then  orig- 
inated the  implements  of  copper,  bronze  and  iron, 
which  in  the  main  were  patterned  after  their  earlier 
implements  which  had  been  made  of  stone  and  of 
wood. 

The  bow  and  arrow  have  been  used  by  primitive 
peoples  from  very  early  times,  but  as  to  the  origin 
of  the  bow  there  is  very  little  known.  The  arrow 
is  modified  from  the  spear,  and  the  art  of  feathering 
the  arrow  goes  back  beyond  our  earliest  written 
history.  Various  kinds  of  bows  have  been  made, 
the  most  complex  of  which,  but  not  necessarily  the 
most  effective,  was  the  so-called  cross-bow,  which 
was  used  in  Europe  during  the  sixth  century. 

Another  weapon  used  by  early  man  was  the  blow- 
pipe, which  had  quite  a  simple  origin,  but  which  in 
reality  was  the  inception  of  the  fire-arm,  which  has 
since  wielded  such  influence  in  the  affairs  of  men. 


PRIMITIVE    WEAPONS.  163 

With  pellets  made  of  suitable  material  and  small 
darts  as  ammunition,  some  of  the  Indian  tribes  of 
the  South  American  forests,  the  so-called  hunting 
tribes,  found  the  blow-pipe  to  be  of  great  service  in 
the  shooting  of  small  game,  and  even  in  war  this 
weapon  was  to  an  extent  used  by  them,  the  points 
of  the  darts  being  frequently  covered  with  Curari 
poison.  Some  of  these  blow-pipes  are  from  eight 
to  twelve  feet  in  length,  with  the  calibre  almost 
large  enough  to  admit  the  end  of  the  little  finger. 
The  stem  of  a  small  palm  tree  or  reed  is  used  in  the 
manufacture  of  them. 

The  arrows  used  are  sometimes  from  fifteen  to 
eighteen  inches  in  length,  and  are  sharply  pointed 
and  so  notched  as  to  break  off  in  the  wound.  In 
Peru,  arrows  as  small  as  one  and  one-half  or  two 
inches  in  length  have  been  used ;  they  were  likewise 
poisoned,  and  it  is  said  that  accidental  wounds  have 
proven  fatal. 

In  many  portions  of  the  Malay  archipelago  the 
natives  have  long  used  the  blow-pipe.  In  Borneo 
the  Dyaks  have  an  iron  spear- head  which  they  are 
able  to  attach  to  the  end  of  their  blow-pipe  and 
thus  convert  it  into  a  spear.  When  it  is  used  as  a 
blow-pipe  their  arrows  are  small,  and  are  tipped 
with  a  piece  of  pith  which  corresponds  in  size  with 
the  calibre  of  their  blow-pipe.  In  the  pith  are 
placed  sharp  fish-teeth,  and  these  are  poisoned  with 
upas  juice,  which  when  thus  used  has  proven  fatal 
to  man  when  shot  from  a  distance  of  forty  yards 
away. 

After  the  invention  of  gun-powder   the   principle 


164  FOOD. 

of  the  blow-pipe  became  so  modified  as  to  be  used 
in  connection  therewith.  Instead  of  a  reed  an  iron 
barrel  was  used,  and  the  expulsive  power,  instead 
of  being  air-expelled  from  the  chest,  was  gun-pow- 
der. The  near  end  of  the  iron  barrel  was  closed ; 
a  touch-hole  was  made,  through  which  by  bringing 
fire  in  contact  with  the  powder  the  explosion  was 
accomplished. 

The  quest  for  food  is  perhaps  the  most  necessary 
occupation  of  all  animal  forms,  and  it  is  probable 
that  mankind  originated  in  a  region  where  the  food 
supply  was  such  that  it  could  be  obtained  without 
any  very  great  difficulty.  The  tropical  regions  in 
all  parts  of  the  world  are  especially  rich  in  their 
fauna  and  flora,  and  in  these  regions  many  varieties 
of  vegetable  and  animal  foods  are  available  with  very 
little  effort. 

The  dentition  and  habits  of  man  from  the  earliest 
time  indicate  that  a  mixed  diet  of  both  vegetable 
and  animal  food  is  the  nourishment  best  adapted  to 
his  needs. 

Among  the  tropical  dietetic  plants,  perhaps  the 
most  important  to  mankind  have  been  those  in- 
cluded in  the  ord^v  Palm  ace  cf,  or  the  palm  family. 
A  few  of  them  are  found  outside  of  the  tropics. 
Many  of  them  possess  stems  which  when  young  and 
tender  make  palatable  and  nutritious  food,  and  when 
matured  yield  farinaceous  substances.  From  many 
a  sweet  sap,  taken  by  incision,  sugar,  spirits  and 
vinegar  may  be  made. 

In  the  tropics  of  South  America  the  Guilehna 
speciosa,  which   bears  the    pupunhas,  which    resem- 


FOOD. 


165 


bles  somewhat  the  apricot  or  egg-plant,  is  much 
esteemed  by  the  natives.  The  forests  of  the  Amazon 
region  furnish  the  BraziHan  chestnut  {Bertholletia 
excelsa),  the  Sapodilla  plum  {AcJiras  sapota),  the 
Avocado  pear  {Persea  g7^atissima) ,  the  cocoa  and 
the  pineapple. 

In  central  Africa  the  natives  eat  largely  of  the 
nuts  of  the  doom  palm  {Hyphaena  thebaica). 
Throughout  Polynesia  many  of  the  various  bread- 
fruit trees  are  found,  from  which  the  natives  so 
largely  partake.  Nearly  all  portions  of  the  surface 
of  the  earth  furnish  some  edible  plants,  which  grow 
upon  hillside,  valley  or  plain. 

The  various  cereals  found  in  different  parts  of  the 
world  have  been  used  as  food  from  the  earliest 
times,  as  have  likewise  many  roots,  berries  and  nuts. 

Many  varieties  of  animals  have  been  and  are  still 
used  for  eating  among  different  peoples.  Those 
first  so  used  were  probably  those  which  were  most 
easily  procured,  such  as  insects,  birds,  reptiles  and 
the  smaller  mammals.  Fishing  probably  developed 
later,  and  the  spearing  of  fish  is  extensively  prac- 
ticed in  nearly  all  regions  where  mankind  exists. 
The  natives  of  the  inhospitable  shores  of  Terra  del 
Fuego  feed  almost  exclusively  on  fish  and  on  shell- 
fish, and  the  heaps  of  shells  and  fish-bones  which 
have  accumulated  in  this  region  as  a  result  is  said 
to  be  quite  extensive.  Such  shell-heaps,  or  kitchen- 
middens,  have  been  found  in  many  regions,  those  of 
Denmark  being  especially  famous  on  account  of 
their  association  with  early  European  man. 

One  of  the  greatest  discoveries  made  by  primitive 


I66  FIRE. 

man  was  a  method  for  the  production  of  fire,  for  by 
the  aid  of  fire  matter  may  be  modified  in  a  variety 
of  ways  so  as  to  be  more  perfectly  adapted  to  the 
requirements  of  the  human  species.  By  means  of 
fire  the  surrounding  temperature  is  modified  to  suit 
our  comfort,  and  our  food  is  Hkewise  cooked.  Fire 
has  been  used  as  a  protection  from  various  savage 
animals  with  which  man  has  had  to  contend  in  many 
parts  of  the  world.  Canoes  have  been  constructed 
by  hollowing  out  the  trunks  of  trees  by  means  of 
fire.  The  artificial  ash-heaps  of  very  early  date  that 
have  been  found  in  various  portions  of  the  world, 
associated  with  other  evidences,  seem  to  indicate 
that  all  of  the  various  branches  of  the  primitive 
human  family  had  a  knowledge  of  fire  and  its  uses 
and  artificial  production. 

The  manner  by  which  early  man  first  became  ac- 
quainted with  fire  is,  and  necessarily  always  will  be, 
a  matter  of  conjecture.  It  seems  probable,  how- 
ever, that  the  fires  produced  by  the  elements  of 
nature,  such  as  that  from  lightning  and  volcanic 
eruptions,  may  have  been  utilized;  and  gradually 
these  sources  failing  or  becoming  insufficient  to 
meet  the  necessary  demands,  the  primitive  people 
finally  discovered  methods  by  which  fire  might  be 
produced  at  will.  That  friction  produces  heat  is 
illustrated  in  all  cold  climates  by  the  way  in  which 
most  persons  are  accustomicd  to  rub  their  hands 
together  in  order  to  keep  them  warm.  In  many 
portions  of  the  w^orld  the  natives  have  produced 
fire  on  exactly  this  principle,  only  instead  of  rubbing 
the   hands   together   they  have   used  dry  sticks   of 


FIRE.  167 

various  kinds  of  wood.  The  difficulties  attending 
the  production  of  fire  by  means  of  friction  are  very 
great,  and  that  early  man  acquired  this  knowledge 
and  was  able  to  accomplish  it  is  truly  very  wonder- 
ful, and  yet  we  positively  know  that  many  tribes  in 
various  portions  of  the  earth  have  from  very  early 
times,  and  still  do,  utilize  this  method. 

The  inhabitants  of  Polynesia  have  a  most  primi- 
tive method,  which  is  still  in  use,  for  producing  fire. 
A  piece  of  wood  is  grooved,  and  in  this  groove  a 
stick  is  rubbed  backwards  and  forwards  with  suffi- 
cient force  and  rapidity  until  it  commences  to  glow, 
and  when   enough   heat  or  fire  is  thus   generated, 
some  soft,  inflammable,  dry  substance,  as  some  veg- 
etable fabric,  is  brought  in  contact  with  the  glow% 
and  thus  a  flame  is  produced.     In  certain  parts  of 
South   America    the    natives    bound    together   two 
pieces  of  wood,  and  between  these  a  stick  was  rap- 
idly revolved  with  sufficient  force  until  a  glow  or  a 
flame  was   produced.     Other  people,  however,  dis- 
covered that  two  sticks  bound  together  were  un- 
necessary, and  that  one  piece  of  wood  with  a  suit- 
able  depression   would   answer   the    same    purpose, 
and  that  in  this  depression  the  second  stick  could 
be  rapidly  revolved  and  produce  fire.     This  consti- 
tutes the  fire-drill  which  has  been  familiar  to  many 
peoples  in  various   portions  of  the  world  for  ages 
past.     It  was  known  to  the  Indians  of  North,  Cen- 
tral and  South  America ;  it  was  used  by  the  Bush- 
men, Hottentots  and  other  tribes  in  south  Africa; 
by  the  natives  of  Ceylon,  and  also  by  the  natives  of 
Australia.     Geographically  these  peoples  were  so  far 


l68  LANGUAGE. 

separated  that  it  is  not  possible  that  the  knowledge 
of  the  fire-drill  could  have  spread,  from  one  to  the 
other  of  them,  and  therefore  we  are  compelled  to 
conclude  that  this  indicates  an  independent  develop- 
ment of  culture  along  similar  lines,  necessitated  by 
the  demands  made  by  a  similarity  of  environment  on 
peoples  sufficiently  qualified  mentally  to  respond 
thereto.  This  same  principle  we  see  illustrated  in 
many  different  phases  by  the  early  peoples  of  vari- 
ous parts  of  the  earth,  sometimes  separated  by  broad 
seas,  vast  mountain  chains  and  mighty  forests,  mak- 
ing in  some  instances  communication  betw^een  them 
very  improbable. 

There  are  not  at  the  present  time,  and  so  far  as 
is  known  there  never  were,  any  people  without  lan- 
guage. The  faculty  of  speech  is  the  result  of  both 
physical  and  psychical  causes,  and  the  sounds  which 
human  beings  are  able  to  give  expression  to  by 
means  of  the  voice  for  the  conveyance  of  ideas  to 
other  individuals  constitutes  language. 

Language  is,  so  far  as  can  be  positively  deter- 
mined, limited  to  the  human  species,  although  by 
some  it  has  been  suspected  to  exist  in  some  of  the 
lower  animals.  That  many  of  the  lower  animals  are 
able  to  communicate  with  one  another  is  true,  but 
this  communication,  for  many  reasons,  cannot  be 
considered  language  in  the  sense  in  which  human 
beings  communicate  with  each  other. 

In  the  development  of  the  languages  of  the  vari- 
ous peoples  of  the  world  two  factors  are  of  especial 
importance,  the  one  being  the  human  mind,  with 
vocal    structures  able  to   produce  sounds,  and    the 


LANGUAGE. 


169 


Other  being  the  environment.  The  operations  of 
the  mind  result  in  thought  pertaining  to  matter 
suggested  by  the  individual  or  by  the  environment 
or  by  both,  and  the  expansion  of  the  same  by  means 
of  the  organs  of  the  voice  results  in  language. 

By  the  study  of  words  and  sentences,  linguists 
have  been  able  to  reduce  the  languages  spoken  by 
mankind  to  the  three  following  groups  or  types  :  The 
monosyllabic,  the  polysyllabic  or  agglutinative,  and 
the  inflective.  In  the  monosyllabic  group  the  words 
are  all  roots,  and  there  are  no  modifications  by  the 
use  of  prefixes  or  suffixes.  This  form  of  speech  is 
illustrated  by  the  Chinese  language  and  its  dialects. 
The  polysyllabic  or  agglutinative  group  is  where 
words  are  formed  of  several  elements  which  are  so 
brought  together  as  to  modify  the  root  sound  in  the 
expression  of  the  idea,  as  by  the  use  of  prefixes  and 
suffixes.  The  idioms  of  the  American  aborigines, 
the  Basques,  the  Berbers  and  the  Finnish  languages 
illustrate  this. 

The  inflective  group  of  languages  includes  those 
in  which  the  root  form  may  be  modified  to  express 
its  relations  to  another  root  form.  The  Semitic  and 
the  Aryan  languages  belong  to  this  class  ;  only  two 
European  languages  are  here  not  included. 

It  has  been  estimated  that  there  are  about  one 
thousand  distinct  languages.  These  did  not  origin- 
ate separately,  although  in  many  instances  there  are 
groups  of  languages  which  indicate  that  they  prob- 
ably originated  from  one  common  ancestral  tongue. 
A  group  of  this  character  is  designated  to  be  a 
family,  and  is  admirably  illustrated  by  the  Romance 


170  LANGUAGE. 

family  of  languages,  which  includes,  among  others, 
the  French,  the  Spanish  and  the  Italian,  all  of 
which  originated  from,  or  are  descended  from,  the 
Latin,  the  language  of  ancient  Rome. 

Language  has  been,  and  still  is,  of  much  service 
to  the  ethnologist  in  the  classification  of  some  of 
the  various  divisions  of  mankind.  This  is  especially 
true  in  those  instances  where  physical  criteria  can- 
not be  found  in  the  peoples  compared,  owing  to  the 
fact  that  the  resemblances  existing  between  them 
are  so  strong  that  sufficient  physical  data  for  pur- 
poses of  differentiation  does  not  exist.  This  is  espe- 
cially true  of  the  American  Indian  tribes,  which  as 
a  rule  present  such  strong  uniformity  of  physical 
type  throughout  the  whole  of  North,  Central  and 
South  America,  with  perhaps  a  few  slight  excep- 
tions. Here  language  is  resorted  to  as  a  means  of 
classification ;  it  is  about  the  best  method  available 
in  arranging  these  peoples,  although  it  is  not  an 
altogether  satisfactory  guide. 

It  must  not,  however,  be  inferred  that  similarity 
of  language  necessarily  indicates  relationship,  for 
such  is  not  always  so.  Frequently,  for  example, 
Chinese  or  Africans  are  found  that  are  able  to  speak 
good  English,  although  of  course  there  is  no  blood 
relationship.  Instances  have  occurred  where  in  war 
one  group  of  people  have  made  a  conquest  of  an- 
another  group  which  spoke  a  different  language. 
In  an  instance  of  this  character  the  languages  of 
the  conquerors  and  the  vanquished  are  likely  to 
undergo  modification,  although  there  may  be  no 
blood  relationship.  ^ 


WRITING.  171 

Writing  is  the  recording  of  characters  on  any 
substance  which  characters  may  convey  ideas  to  the 
mind  of  another. 

When,  where  and  among  what  people  writing 
first  had  its  origin  we  do  not  know,  and  it  is  im- 
possible that  we  ever  will  know,  for  the  reason  that 
the  genesis  of  this  art  probably  began  unconsciously 
in  the  development  of  the  human  species,  and  after- 
wards, by  the  recognition  of  the  significance  of  these 
unconscious  signs,  and  by  the  imitation  of  them, 
the,  in  one  sense,  artificial  and  more  complex  meth- 
ods were  adopted,  and  the  subsequent  development 
of  the  art  became  possible.  In  the  consideration  of 
the  doings  of  primitive  man  from  any  standpoint 
there  is  one  factor  that  it  is  especially  difficult,  if 
not  impossible,  for  us  to  comprehend,  and  that  is  his 
mental  capacity. 

As  to  the  unconscious  beginning  of  writing,  it 
might  be  illustrated  thus  :  Let  us  suppose,  for  ex- 
ample, that  some  primitive  man  or  men  might  have 
had  an  encampment.  This  may  have  necessitated 
the  chopping  down  of  trees  with  their  primitive 
stone  implements  for  the  building  of  huts  and  the 
making  of  their  camp-fires.  The  forming  of  their 
camp  thus  became,  to  an  extent,  the  recording  of 
certain  facts,  although  of  course  it  was  not  done 
with  the  intention  of  conveying  ideas  to  the  minds 
of  others;  nevertheless,  the  camp  afterwards  de- 
serted, it  was  possible  for  it  to  convey  certain  facts 
and  ideas  to  the  minds  of  individuals  who  might 
arrive  later.  Coming  to  the  sight  of  this  former 
abode  of  early  man,  the  ashes  from  their  camp-fires, 


172  WRITING. 

the  stumps  remaining  of  the  trees  cut  down,  the 
underbrush  broken  and  destroyed,  all  told  a  tale  as 
clearly  and  as  truly  in  many  respects  as  could  be 
done  by  pen. 

This  being  true  it  is  certainly  a  legitimate  deduc- 
tion that  here,  in  illustrations  such  as  this  and  many 
others  that  could  be  given,  we  find  the  suggestion 
in  a  perfectly  natural  manner  that  prompted  the 
early  members  of  the  human  species  to  make  char- 
acters for  the  conveyance  of  ideas. 

The  remaining  stump  of  a  tree,  cut  down  for 
some  utilitarian  purpose,  tells  most  plainly  to  later 
comers  that  predecessors  were  present.  Uninten- 
tionally it  furnishes  positive  information  as  to  the 
presence  of  others  in  that  particular  region.  This 
being  true,  it  is  but  a  step  for  early  man  to  have 
recognized  the  possibility  of  intentionally  communi- 
cating to  his  fellows  by  merely  incising  a  tree,  as  so 
many  savages  still  do  at  the  present  time  in  various 
regions  of  the  world. 

The  theory  here  presented  as  to  the  inception  of 
writing,  it  seems  to  me,  furnishes  a  natural  explan- 
ation as  to  the  origin  of  that  great  art,  more  natural 
than  is  the  view  held  by,  I  think,  all  previous  writers, 
that  picture-writing  constituted  the  earliest  method. 
We  also  know  that  in  the  development  of  the  child 
the  pencil-in-hand  lines  are  executed  before  pictures 
are  drawn. 

Picture-writing  is,  however,  a  very  old  method  of 
thought-recording,  and  many  interesting  and  value- 
able  specimens  of  it  have  been  preserved.  At  the 
time  of  the  discovery  of  America  this  system  was  in 


WRITING.  173 

very  extensive  use  by  the  hunting  tribes  of  the 
North  American  Indians. 

The  picture  of  any  animal,  as  a  bear  for  example, 
drawn  with  the  intention  of  representing  that  ani- 
mal only,  would  be  a  pictograph.  This  method  of 
graphic  representation  of  thought  has  been  utilized 
by  nearly  all  savage  peoples  in  various  portions  of 
the  world. 

A  next  higher  stage  in  the  development  of  writ- 
ing is  where  the  picture  of  an  animal  or  any  other 
object  is  used,  not  to  represent  the  animal  or  object 
drawn,  but  to  represent  something  else  other  than 
the  actual  object  drawn,  as,  for  example,  a  turtle 
might  be  drawn  to  represent  the  earth.  The  pic- 
ture thus  becomes  symbolic.  From  these  symbolic 
drawings  of  animals  and  other  things,  abbreviations 
or  signs  were  later  used,  and  thus  instead  of  the 
picture  or  the  symbol  being  entirely  depended  upon 
for  the  conveyance  of  the  thought  the  characters 
became  idiographic  in  character,  and  later,  through 
the  association  with  these,  signs  of  certain  sounds, 
the  pho7ietic  characters  developed,  and  the  gap  from 
thought-writing  to  sound-writing  may  have  been  so 
gradually  accomplished  that  were  we  able  to  com- 
pare complete  data  from  one  to  the  other  it  might 
seem  less  remarkable,  and  the  creation  of  alphabets 
would  probably  be  much  more  satisfactorily  under- 
stood. 

It  is  not  at  all  probable  that  any  of  these  methods 
for  the  graphic  representation  of  thought  developed 
suddenly  in  any  one  place  at  any  one  time,  or  that 
the  adoption   of  one   method   resulted   in  the  aban- 


174  WRITING. 

donment  necessarily  of  the  others.  On  the  other 
hand  we  know  that  in  some  instances  at  least  sev- 
eral of  these  methods  were  used  simultaneously  in 
the  same  manuscripts. 

In  America  we  find  that  the  Aztecs  of  Mexico 
and  the  Mayas  of  Yucatan  were  the  most  accom- 
plished of  all  of  the  American  aborigines  in  the  art 
of  writing ;  both  of  these  peoples  had  at  the  time  of 
the  discovery  a  literature  of  no  mean  character,  and 
the  attempts  at  the  translation  of  which  has  since 
been  a  matter  of  much  puzzling  interest  to  students 
of  American  linguistics.  It  has  been  considered  by 
some  authorities  on  this  subject  that  both  the  Aztecs 
and  the  Mayas  were  partly  familiar  with  and  used 
to  an  extent  phonetic  characters  in  their  manu- 
scripts. Some  have  even  gone  so  far  as  to  attempt 
to  connect  these  American  manuscripts,  with  their 
curious  hieroglyphic  characters,  with  those  of  the 
ancient  Egyptians. 

The  hieroglyphic  picture-writing  of  the  ancient 
Egyptians,  through  the  inscriptions,  may  be  traced 
back  for  a  period  of  more  than  six  thousand  years, 
to  the  time  of  the  second  Egyptian  dynasty,  when 
it  had  already  attained  great  perfection,  indicating 
that  its  origin  must  have  been  at  a  much  earlier 
period.  It  comprised  pictorial  ideograms,  which 
resulted  in  certain  verbal  phonograms,  some  of 
which  were  used  as  syllabic  signs.  About  forty- 
five  of  the  four  hundred  phonograms  were  of  an 
alphabetic  character  associated  with  vocal  sounds. 
The  origin  of  our  own  alphabet  may  be  traced  back 
to  these  Egyptian  signs. 


ENVIRONMENT.  175 

The  Phoenicians,  taking  the  Egyptian  hieroglyphs 
as  a  basis,  rejecting  all  unnecessary  characters, 
formed  the  first  true  alphabet  of  which  we  have  any 
knowledge.  The  first  true  origin  of  the  alphabet 
was  pointed  out  by  M.  de  Rouge  in  1859,  when  he 
contended  that  the  prototypes  of  the  Phoenician 
characters  existed,  not  on  the  monuments  of  Egypt, 
but  in  the  hieratic  or  priestly  writings  as  found 
especially  in  the  Papyrus  Prisse,  which  was  found 
in  a  tomb  belonging  to  the  eleventh  dynasty. 

Many  and  diverse  are  the  conditions  under  wdiich 
the  human  species  exists.  In  the  frigid,  the  tem- 
perate and  the  torrid  regions  ;  in  the  forest  and  on 
the  plains  ;  in  the  depths  of  blackest  savagery  and 
in  the  highest  of  civilization  mankind  lives,  and,  to 
an  extent,  shapes  the  destiny  of  his  successors. 

The  environment  under  which  living  things  exist 
is  not  a  stable  one,  but  is  continually  changing. 
This  being  true,  it  follows  that  organic  forms  are 
thus  constantly  subjected  to  different  conditions, 
and  it  thus  becomes  necessary  that  they,  according 
to  circumstances,  adapt  themselves  to  this  changing 
environment.  If  they  are  not  able  to  so  adapt 
themselves  they  are  placed  at  a  disadvantage  in  the 
struggle  for  life,  and  extinction  in  the  case  of  many 
of  the  lower  animals  has  occurred  in  consequence 
thereof. 

In  the  case  of  mankind  in  relation  to  this  chang- 
ing environment  we  see  it  illustrated  with  the 
change  of  seasons. 

With  the  advent  of  winter  in  the  temperate  re- 
gions it  becomes  necessary  for  man  to  change  those 


176  ENVIRONMENT. 

habits  of  living  which  he  followed  during  the  sum- 
mer season.  He  wears  different  clothing,  lives 
more  indoors,  eats  different  food,  and  in  a  variety 
of  ways  he  lives  in  the  winter  a  different  life  from 
that  which  he  follows  during  the  summer  season. 
In  so  modifying  his  habits  of  life,  according  to  cir- 
cumstances, he  is  merely  adapting  himself  to  his 
new  environment. 

This  principle  of  adaptation  applies  not  merely  to 
the  individual,  but  also  to  the  larger  groups  and 
races  of  mankind. 

An  illustration  of  this  may  be  seen  in  the  peoples 
inhabiting  the  region  of  the  Caucasus  Mountains. 
These  mountains,  stretching  for  a  distance  of  about 
750  miles  between  the  Black  Sea  and  the  Caspian, 
instead  of  running  in  a  general  northern  and  south- 
ern direction,  as  the  majority  of  great  mountain 
chains  do,  trend  in  a  general  direction  east  and  west. 
Their  height  varies  greatly,  ranging  in  places  from 
250  to  10,000  feet,  and  in  numerous  ways  the  topo- 
graphy is  extremely  variable  and  unique.  The  envi- 
ronment here  furnished  for  mankind  is,  therefore,  a 
very  diverse  one. 

The  peoples  inhabiting  the  Caucasus  region  are 
considered  to  have  come  from  about  the  same  stock, 
but  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  region  in  which  they 
live  presents  such  great  physical  diversities  they,  in 
adapting  themselves  to  these  varying  and  various 
conditions,  have  as  a  result  developed  among  them- 
selves many  differences  in  their  methods  of  life, 
their  customs  and  their  language. 

Racial  adaptation  cannot  be  better  illustrated  than 


ENVIRONMENT.  177 

by  considering  how  well  the  white  race  has  adapted 
itself  to  the  environment  of  America  since  the  time 
of  the  discovery. 

No  better  illustrations  of  physiological  and  ana- 
tomical adaptation  can  be  given  than  the  description 
of  John  Hunter's  experiment  on  the  buck  as  nar- 
rated by  the  late  Sir  Wm.  MacCormac  in  the  Hun- 
terian  Oration  of  1899:  ''He  tells  us  that  in  July, 
1785,  he   had  a  buck   thrown  and  tied  its  carotid 
artery.     Immediately   the    pulsation    in    the    velvet 
ceased  and  the  antler  grew  cold,  but  on  returning  a 
week  or  two  later  he  found  warmth  restored  and 
the  antler  growing.     The  buck  was  now  killed  and 
sent   to   Leicester   Square,    and    upon   examination 
Hunter  found  the  ligated  artery  obliterated  and  the 
circulation  carried  on  by  the  other,  generally  small, 
vessels  above  and  below  the  place  of  ligature,  which 
had  thus  restored  the  blood  current  in  the  growing 
antler.     Nevertheless,  he  felt  uncertain  whether  the 
same  result  would  occur  in  man,  and  in  December, 
1785,  he  carefully  explained  the  alternatives  to  his 
first  patient,  a  coachman,  who  was  suffering  from 
popliteal   aneurism,  in   St.  George's  Hospital.     He 
told  him  of  the  usually  fatal  method  of  incision  and 
evacuation  of  the  sac,  the  better  chance  of  life  by 
amputation,  but  with  loss  of  limb,  and  guided  by 
his  experience  of  the  return  of  the  circulation  in  the 
antler  of  the  buck,  he  said  he  would  try  to  save  both 
his  life  and  limb.     The  patient  consented,  and  six 
weeks  afterwards  he  left  the  hospital  cured  of  the 
aneurism,    although   he   died   fifteen   months    after- 
wards from  another  malady."     In  this   interesting 
12 


178  ENVIRONMENT. 

narrative  and,  at  the  time,  wonderful  experiment, 
the  blood  supply  to  the  antler  was  cut  off.  Nature, 
however,  through  the  formation  of  the  new  small 
arteries,  established  collateral  circulation ;  and  thus 
resulted  an  adaptation  to  environment  which  saved 
the  antler;  and  so,  in  many  instances,  the  same 
principle  may  be  illustrated. 

The  relationship  existing  between,  race,  climate 
and  disease  is  a  subject  which  has  not  until  very 
recently  received  that  consideration  which  it  de- 
serves ;  now,  however,  the  importance  of  the  matter 
is  becoming  more  recognized  by  physicians  in  both 
Europe  and  America,  as  is  shown  by  the  organiza- 
tion of  societies  for  the  study  of  tropical  diseases. 

The  effect  of  temperature  on  health  seems  to  be 
the  most  important  factor  so  far  as  climate  is  con- 
cerned. Most  Europeans  and  white  Americans 
from  the  temperate  zone  that  go  directly  into  the 
tropics  are  likely  to  suffer  from  anaemia,  gastro- 
intestinal disorders,  malaria,  typhoid  and  yellow 
fevers.  If  the  change  of  climate  be  made  gradually 
the  individual  is  more  likely  to  be  able  to  adapt 
himself  to  the  new  environment  and  thus  less  sub- 
ject to  these  diseases. 

It  has  been  claimed  that  there  is  a  relationship  of 
mortality  to  the  winds  blowing  from  the  north  and 
east,  and  inverse  relationship  to  those  winds  which 
come  from  the  south  and  from  the  west. 

A  change  of  climate  may  affect  some  organs 
favorably  and  at  the  same  time  other  organs  detri- 
mentally. For  example,  a  climatic  change  may 
benefit  a  lung  disease,  but  cause  liver  trouble.     A 


ENVIRONMENT.  I79 

dry,  tropical  climate  may  be  conducive  to  health  in 
permitting  outdoor  life  and  exercise  and  thus  pro- 
mote certain  factors  that  are  conducive  to  health ; 
but  such  environment  is  also  favorable  to  the  develop- 
ment of  the  lower  forms  of  life,  including,  frequently, 
those  micro-organisms  which  are  productive  of  dis- 
ease. It  is  alleged  that  in  India  during  the  hot,  dry 
season,  when  small-pox  is  frequently  extensive  and 
severe,  that  vaccination  is  hardly  safe,  because  of  the 
great  tendency  of  mixed  infection  occurring  in  con- 
nection with  the  vesicles  resulting  from  the  vacci- 
nation. 

Another  factor  concerning  the  health  of  the  indi- 
vidual which  must  be  modified  by  climate  is  exer- 
cise. In  general,  it  is  recognized  that  extremes  of 
temperature  tend  to  produce  indolence  in  the  indi- 
vidual, and  that  the  greatest  energy  is  usually  shown 
by  the  inhabitants  of  the  temperate  regions.  This, 
however,  is  dependent  to  a  great  extent  upon  race. 

Many  recognize  the  importance  of  exercise  as 
being  necessary  for  health,  but  comparatively  few, 
even  among  medical  men,  have  considered  the  full 
importance  of  the  subject  from  the  biological  stand- 
point, which  is,  that  the  use  of  an  organ  or  struct- 
ure within  reasonable  limits  tends  to  its  develop- 
ment and  perfection,  and  that,  conversely,  the  disuse 
of  an  organ  or  structure  tends  to  its  atrophy  and 
degeneration.  Furthermore,  if  this  disuse  be  con- 
tinued indefinitely  the  structures  involved  may  be- 
come useless  or  may  even  disappear;  and,  in  the 
case  of  some  of  the  lower  animals,  the  extinction  of 
the  form  has  resulted. 


l80  ENVIRONMENT. 

It  is  considered  by  biologists  that  the  influences 
of  environment  affect  structure  through  function, 
and  that  structure  is  modified  thereby.  In  the 
average  man  of  the  white  race  a  number  of  illustra- 
tions of  this  factor  can  be  seen.  Take,  for  example, 
the  foot.  Owing  to  disuse  the  toes  in  civilized  man 
have  degenerated  to  such  an  extent  that  in  the  adult 
they  have  become  almost  functionless  through  our 
custom  of  wearing  shoes.  Among  savage  peoples, 
where  shoes  are  not  worn,  this  loss  of  function  on 
the  part  of  the  toes  is  not  observed ;  and,  in  infants 
of  the  white  race,  there  is  relatively  more  power  in 
the  toes  than  in  those  of  adults. 

In  the  case  of  the  hand,  through  use,  the  fingers 
have  improved,  as  is  seen  in  many  occupations 
which  require  that  they  do  the  most  delicate  work. 

The  gastro-intestinal  tract  shows  certain  modifi- 
cations which  have  accompanied  our  higher  civiliza- 
tion; and,  that  this  could  produce  still  greater 
structural  changes  is  possible;  and  it  should  be  so 
recognized.  Through  disuse  the  teeth  of  the  white 
race  are  undergoing  a  degeneration,  which  all  inter- 
ested in  the  human  welfare,  especially  physicians, 
should  recognize.  In  the  different  races  of  mankind 
the  teeth  present  certain  differences.  Among  the 
dark-skinned  races  they  being,  as  a  rule,  larger  and 
stronger  than  among  the  white. 

As  the  methods  of  food  preparation  in  vogue 
among  the  higher  grades  of  the  civilized  members 
of  the  white  race  have  thus  resulted  in  a  disuse,  which 
has  been  productive  of  an  actual  change  of  structure 
so  far  as  the  teeth  are  concerned,  so  this  change 


ENVIRONMENT.  l8l 

can,  and  to  an  extent  has,  affected  the  gastro- 
intestinal canal,  as  shown  by  some  investigations 
among  the  French,  which  indicate  that  a  narrowing 
of  the  intestinal  tract  has  resulted. 

To  the  writer  it  seems  that  this,  if  nothing  more, 
should  show  conclusively  that  mankind  can  never 
thrive  as  a  species  on  concentrated  foods,  for  the 
reason  that  concentrated  foods  would  relieve  the 
system  of  certain  work  that  it  is  supposed  to  do. 
This  relief  of  function  would  be  a  disuse,  and  this 
disuse  would  in  time,  although  it  might  require 
many  generations,  be  productive  of  such  a  degener- 
ative change  of  structure  as  might  jeopardize  the 
existence  of  mankind. 

In  the  transmission  to  offspring  of  those  charac- 
teristics that  have  been  developed  and  increased  by 
use,  it  is  considered  by  some  that  those  which  are 
unfavorable  to  the  individual  are  more  readily  trans- 
mitted than  those  which  are  favorable.  An  unfavor- 
able characteristic  thus  once  established  renders  a 
predisposition  to  various  other  troubles. 

With  this  predisposition,  however,  there  is  not 
the  tendency  for  the  pathological  modification  to  be 
transmitted  to  the  offspring  in  the  same  degree  to 
which  it  is  present  in  the  parent,  for  the  reason  that 
there  is  ever  present  that  tendency  for  a  more  per- 
fect adaptation  to  environment,  and  also  that  with 
the  pathological  variation,  as  a  rule,  only  one  of  the 
parents  is  affected. 

In  the  case  of  disease,  when  it  is  acquired,  it  may 
exist  temporarily  or  it  may  become  permanent  in 
the  individual.     The  longer  the  duration  of  the  dis- 


l82  ENVIRONMENT. 

ease  and  the  more  severe  it  is,  and  the  more  vital 
the  parts  involved,  the  greater  becomes  the  proba- 
bility of  its  producing  permanent  and  hereditary 
effects ;  and,  conversely,  the  shorter  the  duration  of 
the  disease,  the  less  its  intensity,  and  the  less  vital 
the  structures  involved,  the  probabilities  of  its  trans- 
mission become  correspondingly  diminished. 

The  susceptibility  which  is  frequently  shown  in 
certain  individuals  to  certain  diseases  is  also  in  some 
instances  shown  in  races.  Thus,  in  negroes  there  is 
a  decided  predisposition  to  lethargy.  They  also 
show  a  certain  immunity  to  yellow  fever,  although 
not  an  absolute  one. 


INDEX 


Abo,  79. 

Abyssinians,  135. 
Afars,  133. 
Ainos,  loi. 
Akkas,  68. 
Albanians,  141. 
Aliculufs,  126. 
Aleutians,  loi. 
Algonkins,  113. 
Andamanese,  69.  150. 
Angles.  139. 
Anthropoidea,  34. 
Aonik,  126. 
Apayos,  149. 
Arabs,  134. 
Arawaks,  124. 
Archaean,  44. 
Armenians,  135. 
Arthropoda,  21. 
Aryans,  136. 
Assiniboins.  115. 
Assyrians,  135. 
Aurignac,  Cave  of,  47. 
Australians,  154. 
Avars,  143. 
Aztecs,  118. 

Babylonians.  136. 
Baktrians,  141. 
Ba-Frot,  81. 
Ba-Lolo,  81. 
Ba-Ngala,  81. 
Bambaru,  77. 
Baniuns,  76. 
Bantuas,  76,  78. 
Barabras,  78. 
Barombi,  79. 
Barotse,  79. 
Basa,  79. 
Bashirmi,  78. 
Baskirs,  98. 
Basques,  136. 


Batwa,  63. 
Bayon,  79. 
Bechuana,  79. 
Bedjas,  133. 
Berbers,  130. 
Biology,  17. 
Bisayas,  136. 
Blackfeet,  114. 
Black  race,  (i"] , 
Bogobos,  149. 
Bolo,  78. 
Botany,  17. 
Botocudos,  124. 
Bu-Banghi,  81. 
Bulgarians,  140. 
Bushmen,  68. 

Caddoes,  116. 
Cahitas,  118. 
Calaveras  skull,  109. 
Cambrian,  44. 
Caribs,  124. 
Carnivora,  32. 
Carboniferous,  44. 
Catarrhine,  35. 
Caucasic  peoples,  142. 
Cayugas,  114. 
Cell,  15. 
Cetacea,  31. 
Cheiroptera,  33. 
Cherokees,  115. 
Chinese,  86. 
Chipeways,  114. 
Choctaws,  115. 
Chonek,  126. 
Chukchis,  100. 
Coclenterata,  19. 
Conianches,  118. 
Congolese,  81. 
Coras,  118. 
Coroades,  124. 
Crans,  124. 


(183) 


1 84 


INDEX. 


Creeks,  115. 
Crees,  113. 
Cretaceous,  46. 
Crows,  115. 
Czechs,  140. 

Daakals,  133. 
Dakotas,  114. 
Danes,  139. 
Darwinian  theory,  38. 
Devonian,  44. 
Dryopithecus  fontani,  49. 

Echinodermata,  20. 
Edentata,  31. 
Egyptians,  131. 
Environment,  175. 
Eocene,  46. 
Eskimos,  iii. 
Esthonians,  98. 
Evolution,  37. 

Facial  angle,  62. 
Fijians,  152. 
Finns,  97. 
Fire,  166. 
Flemings,  140. 
Food,  164. 
Franks,  139. 
Fuegians,  126. 

Galgai,  143. 

Gallas,  133. 

Germans,  140. 

Ges,  124. 

Giliaks,  loi. 

Goths,  139. 

Great  Ice  Age,  46,  105. 

Greeks,  139. 

Guanches,  130. 

Hamites,  130. 
Hominidse,  36. 
Hottentots,  68. 
Hovas,  145. 
Huns,  140. 
Hyracoidea,  32. 

Icelanders,  140. 
Igorrotes,  136. 
lUyrians,  141. 
Ilocanes,  136. 


Inaken,  126. 
Incas,  124. 
Innuits,  112. 
Inorganic  matter,  15. 
Insectivora,  33. 
Insular  peoples,  133. 
Irish,  139. 
Iroquois,  114. 
Ischorians,  98. 

Jallouke,  TJ. 
Japanese,  102. 
Jews.  136. 
Jurassic,  45. 

Kachintz,  98. 
Kaffirs,  80. 
Kamschatkans,  100. 
Kamucks,  94. 
Kansas,  114. 
Karabulaks,  143. 
Karakalpaks,  97. 
Kassouke,  'JT, 
Kera,  116. 
Kirghiz,  97. 
Kishi,  143. 
Kitchenmiddens,  53. 
Kumuks,  97. 
Kuri,  78. 
Kyrids,  98. 

Language,  168. 
Lapps,  98. 
Latins,  139. 
Lemuria,  50. 
Lenapes,  114. 
Lesghians,  143. 
Letts,  141. 
Liberia,  T]. 
Libyians,  130. 
Livonians,  98. 
Lombards,  139. 

Malalis,  124. 
Malays,  144. 
Mammalia,  26. 
Mandingoes,  76. 
Manx,  139. 
Maoris,  148. 
Marquesans,  148. 
Marsupialia,  31. 


INDEX, 


185 


Massi,  133. 
Matter,  13. 
Maxillary  angle,  62. 
Mayas,  120. 
Melanesians,  152. 
Metscheriaks,  98. 
Mic  Macs,  113. 
Miocene,  46. 
Mistri,  78. 
Mixtecs,  120. 
Mohawks,  114. 
MoUusca,  20. 
Mombuttu,  78. 
Mongu,  78. 
Monogenists,  65. 
Monotremata,  30. 
Moors,  130. 
Moquoi,  118. 
Morphology,  17. 
Mound  Builders,  117. 
Muskhogeans,  115. 

Nahuas,  118. 
Namollos,  100. 
Naulette  jaw,  56. 
Neanderthal  skull,  55. 
Nebular  hypothesis,  42. 
Negrillos,  68. 
Negroes,  68. 
Negroids,  68. 
Negro  slavery,  83. 
Nogaians,  96. 
Norsemen,  139. 
Norwegians,  140. 
Nubas,  78. 
Numidians,  130. 
Nutrition,  17. 
Nyamezi,  81. 

Omahas,  115. 
Onas,  126. 
Oneidas,  114. 
Onondagons,  114. 
Organic  matter,  15. 
Orthognathism,  62. 
Osages,  114. 
Osmanles,  95. 
Ossetes,  143. 
Ostiaks,  97. 
Otomis,  120. 

Pampan£03,  149. 


Papuans,  151. 
Patagonians,  126. 
Pawnees,  116. 
Permian,  44. 
Persians,  141. 
Physiology,  17. 
Pigmies,  68. 

Pithecanthropus  erectui,  57. 
Platyrhinae,  34. 
Pliocene,  46. 
Poles,  140. 
Polynesians,  147. 
Polygenists,  65. 
Polystomata,  19. 
Pomotonans,  148. 
Poncas,  115. 
Post-pliocene,  46. 
Primates,  33. 
Primeval,  43. 
Proboscidea,  32. 
Prognathism,  61. 
Prosimise,  34. 
Protozoa,  19. 
Pueblos,  116. 
Puris,  124. 

Qquichuas,  124. 
Quaines,  98. 
Quapaws,  114. 

Red  race,  103. 
Reggas,  81. 

Regnum  protisticum,  17. 
Relation,  17. 
Repair,  18. 
Reproduction,  17. 
Rifians,  130. 
Rodentia,  33. 
Romans,  139, 
Rua,  81. 
Russians,  140. 
Ruthenians,  140. 

Sagais,  98. 
St.  Prest,  54. 
Samals,  149. 
Samnites,  139. 
Sansandig,  77. 
Saxons,  139. 
Scotch,  139. 
Seminoles,  115. 
Senecas,  114. 


1 86 


INDEX. 


Serers,  76. 
Shoshonees,  118. 
Silurian,  44. 
Sioux,  114 
Sirenia,  31. 
Skull,  60. 
Slavs,  140. 
Somalis,  133. 
Soninke,  TJ. 
Sorbs,  140. 
Soudanese,  76. 
Special  creation,  37. 
Spy  remains,  56. 
Swedes,  140. 
Syrians,  135. 

Tagalas,  149. 
Tahitians,  148. 
Tasmanians,  157. 
Tarahumaras,  118. 
Tartars,  95. 
Tehua,  116. 
Teleouts,  98. 
Telpehuanas,  118. 
Teptiars,  98. 
Thibetans,  92. 
Timbuctoo,  'JT. 
Tingianes,  149. 
Toltecs,  119. 
Tongas,  148. 
Totonacos,  122. 
Trenton  gravels,  107. 
Triassic,  44. 
Tulpis,  124, 
Tunguses,  93. 
Turcomans,  96. 
Turks,  95. 
Tuscaroras,  115. 
Tushi,  143. 


Tzoneca,   126. 

Uighurs,  97. 
Umbrians,  139. 
Ungulata,  32. 
Utes,  118. 
Uzbeks,  97. 

Vandals,  139. 
Vei,  ^T. 
Vermes,  20. 
Vertebrata,  21. 
Vmes,  98. 
Vogouals,  97. 

Wa-Wuma,  81. 
Waste,  18. 
Welsh,  139, 
Wends,  140. 
White  race,  128. 
Winnebagoes,  115. 
Wochua,  69. 
Wolofs,  76. 
Writing,  171. 

Yaco,  78. 
Yahgans,  126. 
Yakuts,  95. 
Yapova,  146. 
Yedina,  78. 
Yellow  race,  85. 
Yumas,  116. 

Zandah,  78. 
Zapotecs,  120. 
Zoology,  17. 
Zulus,  79. 
Zuni,  116. 


m  24  ^^JyAY  USE 


RETURN  TO 


ANTHROPOLOaY  LIBRARY 


This  publication  is  due  on  the  LAS'l'  DATE 
and  HOUR  stamped  below. 

• 

RB17-30m-10,'73 
(R3381S10)4188 — A-32 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


